Frank Wallace was 15 when he left Nazi Germany to seek asylum in Britain in 1939. He was fortunate in having friends to assist him and after attending Monkton Combe School in Bath, in 1942 he was awarded a scholarship to read Mechanical Engineering at the University of Birmingham.

It was clearly a worrying time for a young man who had left his family in Germany, but he graduated with a First in January 1945. The head of Department in Birmingham was Professor Graham F. Mucklow, an acknowledged expert in the field of diesel engineering research, and Wallace was invited to join his small research team.

At that time, there were, of course, no computers available, electronic instrumentation was in its infancy, and research students had to design and construct their own research equipment using any material that happened to be available.

Following his work for a master’s degree, Wallace spent two years as a graduate apprentice at GEC in Birmingham before returning to the University as a lecturer. He was a natural researcher, and internal combustion engineering became his main interest.

His research in turbo charging made him a world authority in this subject. He was especially noted for his work involving two-stroke engines, wave action in intake and exhaust manifolds, the interaction of IC engines with turbines and compressors, and the development of the differential compound engine. The latter was a subject which was particularly dear to him and he patented his design for such an engine. He published research papers in the UK and the US, and wrote a text book on thermodynamics with W. A. Linning.

In 1959 he moved to the Queen’s University, Belfast, as a senior lecturer and in 1964 was promoted to a Chair of Mechanical Engineering. In 1965 he was appointed to a Professorship at what was then the Bristol College of Science and Technology at Ashley Down, Bristol. This later became the University of Bath, and a new campus was established at Claverton Down.

The move was a major undertaking for an engineering department, and took some time to complete. Wallace was a founding father of the new university and in 1973 he saw the completion of the Wolfson Engine Transmission Laboratory at Bath.

In addition to pursuing his research activities he established a successful post-graduate course in internal combustion engineering and he also was instrumental in introducing undergraduate courses in French and German. He was also active in promoting collaborative research with industry and other universities and was chairman of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ Combustion Engine Group (1973-76) as well as the Universities Internal Combustion Engine Group (Uniceg) (1976-86).

He was awarded the DSc degree by the University of Birmingham in 1969 and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Science in 1983. His standing in North America was recognised by the award of a Fellowship of the American Society of Automotive Engineers.

He retired from his post in 1989 but continued with his research activities, including the supervision of PhD students, until he died.

Frank Wallace was born in Dachau in 1924. His father, Max Wallach, had been a seagoing engineer who had also worked on engineering projects in China and South America. On returning from abroad, his father joined his two brothers who had established a successful business in Munich.

The Wallach brothers had made a study of German folk art and had a reputation for the quality and authenticity of their products.

Dachau at that time was a pleasant town before the Nazis established their notorious concentration camp there, and Wallace grew up in a house which was in the grounds of the Wallach hand-block printing factory. Many years later he was invited by the Dachau municipal authorities to attend the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the half a dozen or so Jewish families who had lived in Dachau before the Second World War and had been deported to concentration camps.

He always said that he had been well treated by his teachers at school in Dachau and he was very willing to accept the invitation. It also gave him the opportunity to compare and discuss his own experiences as a young student with postwar German youngsters.

Wallace was a dedicated teacher who regarded the progress and wellbeing of his students as of paramount importance. After he retired he continued to act as chairman of the trustees of the Parkin Residence which catered for overseas students.

A truly delightful person with a ready smile, he was regarded with affection by all who knew him. He had a wide range of interests including music, the arts and tennis. Although he had travelled extensively, his most cherished visits were associated with his lecturing tours of China where his father had spent many years working between the two World Wars.

In 1946 Frank Wallace married Ruth Aronstein, whom he had met while at Birmingham. Both had lost their parents in the Holocaust. It was an idyllic marriage. Ruth was a very dynamic person who contributed a greal deal to the cultural life of Bath. She died just one year before him. They had three children.

Emeritus Professor Frank J. Wallace was born on May 27, 1924. He died of cancer on January 22, 2009, aged 84