The Cowes man who invented the trouser press, Peter Corby, has died at the age of 97.

Although Mr Corby's father invented the valet stand before the Second World War, it was Peter who perfected what was to become a staple fitting in millions of hotel rooms.

After the war Peter Corby left the RAF and went to help his sick father in the business.

A chance meeting with the Concorde plane engineer who had solved the problem of how to prevent the nosecone from freezing inspired the electrical heating pad which transformed the effectiveness of the press.

However, the works manager inherited the Corby Trouser Press business her, who had become fascinated with it, but Peter then spent ten years incrementally buying it off him.

In the early 1970s he started a easing arrangement with hotels and sold the whole business to the Mary Quant holding company, Thomas Jourdan.

The firm has been sold to other firms since but is back in private British ownership.

Peter Corby was born in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire and in the final months of the Second World War he was posted to 78 Squadron and flew Halifax bombers.

Isle of Wight County Press: Peter Corby in his RAF days.Peter Corby in his RAF days.

He was a keen sailor, making several Atlantic crossings in the 1970s when trips of that length were still quite rare.

His navigational skills acquired in the RAF made him exceptionally fast and accurate with a sextant.

His son, yacht designer and former Cowes town councillor, John Corby, said: "As a boy I remember going to the factory in the middle of Windsor, on Saturday mornings when it was empty, and making things with him.

"The house in Windsor was always full of inventions and experimental gadgets."

After moving to Cowes in 1980 Peter led an uneventful life, other than sadly losing most of his fortune as a name in the Lloyds insurance crisis in the 1990s.

He leaves his wife, Ines, and three sons. John's two brothers are from Peter's first marriage.