Reginald Coombes was born September 29, 1901 in Bangalore. He attended Bishop Cotton's School, Bangalore and showed early promise by winning first prize in Physics and Chemistry, Standard IX, aged 16.

He probably attended Madras University and caught the eye of polymath J. B.S. Haldane, professor of biometry at University College, London. Haldane was a world class geneticist and a member of that wonderful breed of academia who sought out and sponsored brilliant candidates as colleagues and replacements for themselves. Haldane, "subjected himself to high pressures, intense cold, poisoning, disease inoculations, fevers and temporary paralysis," clearly an experimental giant in his time. He persuaded the young "Bobuck" to write the external exams in Mathematics and Physics for London University. Bobuck did not disappoint his first patron. He was the first external student to win honours from London.

Old Sanawarians have agreed unanimously that Bobuck was a superb teacher. He used humour and fun to explain his subject and then, turning the board over, displayed concise and precise notes for copying. The lessons stay and stayed. He impressed his boss Principal Agard-Evans enough to sponsor him to take a teaching diploma at Cambridge in 1938-39. This probably qualified him as Senior Master and positioned him to replace his second patron for about six months, until Charles O'Hagan arrived to take over the Principal's job.

Terry Whiteley's detail is representative. 'The most important and lasting memory I have of him was his patient method of making us think - give a clue or hint and then worry us like a terrier until we remembered to put 2 and 2 together and stumble over the answer. It takes a very special kind of teacher to teach a science subject as he did. Most of us can still call to mind the facts we learned then that apply to everyday physics we have encountered. The lesson ends, it is milk break. "You boy - Bash the Bella!" - "You Brown - bring in the Booze!"'

After leaving Sanawar in 1944, Bobuck worked as a publisher's reader and was well rewarded because his scientific expertise quickly separated wheat from chaff. He tried a new start in 1946 in Australia and obtained a teaching post at Armidale Teacher's College part of the University of New England, the first outpost of the University of Sydney. His new start floundered. Jack Harper was perhaps the last Sanawarian to meet Bobuck. in Brisbane and reports a wonderful, light conversation between equals, and a mind a little bloodied but unbowed.

The flesh and blood man was a character. He had style from his unique and individual knuckle knock on an unsuspecting head to his obvious joy in teaching youngsters. He won the hand of a fair lady, Joy Neil, in 1935. Joy, very much alive and thriving, had completed a one year teaching contract in Sanawar and had resumed her career teaching in Darjeeling. The courtship continued and they were married in Quetta in January 1935. They returned to Sanawar together and Lesley debuted in December. James was born in 1939. Bobuck would have been proud of his children. Lesley trained as a teacher and one day woke up to decide teaching was not for her, and resigned there and then. She qualified and taught while enduring medical problems for decades before modern medicine advanced to correct her condition. James became a professional airman and wrote an honours degree in Physics, on leaving the service.

Bobuck was an enthusiastic tennis player, invariably jousting with Charles O'Hagan for staff bragging rights in the annual tournament. He was an active mason, a member of the Kasauli Lodge. He loved playing bridge and was in demand among Kasauli's elite, not as dummy. The Maharaja of Patiala awarded him a cup to acknowledge the highest score in one over at the private cricket ground at Chail. A few old choristers may remember Bobuck singing bass in Miss Doreen Jones' men and boys choir. He loved classical music and, with Sammy Cowell, escaped to listen to his collection, often ...

Greeks invented a theory for heroes. A reckoning, arrêté, follows an act of arrogance, or hubris, inevitably. The theory invites lesser mortals to see both sides of the same coin in heroic acts. The separation is razor thin, there but for the grace of God ... This wonderful, brilliant character was unable to beat the Greek theory. He died alone in 1948. The family has no details of his final days.