He was from Defynnog near Brecon and served in the 1st Battalion, 24th (2nd Warwickshire) Regiment of Footon the south bank of the Buffalo river in South Africa.
On one of my final days in England, I made my way on blistered foot to the south bank of the Thames, past the site of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, to the place where my grandparents had made their balloon trip.
Indeed, spotting mispriced securities seems to be the financial world's latest parlour game: Royal Bank of Canada was this week forced on to the back foot after one of its traders told a newspaper that it had mismarked government-agency and corporate bonds.
But a weaker U.S. economy and a slide in global confidence has put the shoe on the other foot with dealers fully expecting the central bank to move towards easing.
Armed with his patents and financing from Crocker First National Bank in California he established a small laboratory in San Francisco on Green Street, at the foot of Telegraph Hill.