His cartoons of improbable military machines – pulleys, pipes and teetering platforms – offered a gentle, satirical counterpoint to the grim realities of war and helped to make him a household name.
Speaking to the Secret Surrey series, Moira MacQuaide, a historian and writer who gives talks on William Heath Robinson, said: “The house he lived in is still here in Cranleigh, which is nice.
“I don’t know how the phrase came about, but it was certainly around in his time as one of his cartoons was titled something like, ‘Heath Robinson doing a Heath Robinson of a Heath Robinson drawing’,” she said.
“It is quite convoluted with people doing different things, up ladders, paintworks.”