Leonard Thomas Draycott

Born in Nuneaton, Warwickshire in 1913,[1] Draycott matriculated at King's College London in 1932 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1935 aged 22.

[2][3] Beginning his career in education, he taught at the King Edward VI Grammar School in his native Nuneaton,[4] where he was a cricketer on the staff team, batting in two competitive matches against Warwickshire Club and Ground in 1937 and 1938,[5] scoring 5 runs in the first.

[6] Enlisting as a Temporary Instructor to newly conscripted members of the Royal Navy in 1941,[7] Draycott is listed by historian John Winton as implicated in the sinking of the German battleship Scharnhorst in December 1943.

[12] Simultaneously, Draycott co-authored the first edition of Elementary Practical Physics alongside Kenneth William Lyon;[13] a respected and widely circulated GCE Ordinary Level laboratory manual, the Times Educational Supplement reviewed it in 1962 as "sound, well arranged and well produced.".

[16] Despite its publisher Edward Arnold Ltd ceasing operations in 2001, Elementary Practical Physics was still being printed in India as late as 2002,[17] with a 1971 copy currently housed in the National Library.