[2] He was a diligent student who excelled at mathematics and won a fee-paying scholarship to Rochdale Grammar School for Boys (now Balderstone Technology College), where he studied from 1936 to 1943.

He was involved with two projects: (1) on kwashiorkor and a growth-retarding factor in maize bran ; and (2) a chromatographic study of peanut protein hydrolysates and their free amino acid content, as part of a scheme to improve post-war nutrition and the economy of Commonwealth countries in East Africa.

[5] Some aspects of the chromatographic work did not fit in with the MRC’s aims, so he accepted a lectureship in plant chemistry, back at UCL, where he had greater freedom.

He recruited PhD students and technical assistants; they, and later postdoctoral research fellows and foreign visitors, discovered several new plant amino and imino acids.

"To isolate an unusual amino acid from the seeds of the lychee (Litchi chinensis) he had to buy large quantities of the fruit from Covent Garden.

[2] They had two children: Sir Leslie Fowden died from renal and heart failure at a care home in Histon on 16 December 2008 and was cremated in Cambridge on the 29th.