Torquil Norman, who has died aged 91, was successively a naval pilot, banker and businessman, philanthropist and toymaker. He created several popular toys of the 1980s and 90s, before using his wealth and powers of persuasion to buy the then disused Roundhouse building in north London and raise £30m to restore it to a successful arts and concert venue.
In a long and varied career, perhaps somewhat at variance with his establishment background, he opened the swimming pool in the garden of his St John’s Wood home each summer for local children, set up with his wife a charitable trust to support young people, was a supporter of the anti-apartheid and anti-slavery campaigns and argued for social and political reform, national community service and constitutional change.
