, compère and clown. First broadcast on a Henry Hall Guest Night in 1952, The Hippopotamus Song became his signature tune. Ian Bryce Wallace was born in London on July 10 1919 and christened in the crypt of the Houses of Parliament. He served with the Royal Artillery in the Second World War. He married Patricia Gordon Black in 1948 and they went on to have a son and a daughter, who all survived him. He died at home in Highgate, north London, after a long illness. ... Ian Wallace (1919-2009) ...