Francis Hobbs was a Lieutenant-Colonel in the Grenadier Guards.

Off duty, he enjoyed letting his imagination run free as an inventor.

Mr Hobbs, 42, from Rake, near Midhurst, has patented a universal carrying handle for boxes and packages.

While trying to learn Arabic on active service in the Gulf War, he invented a card game for teaching languages that could help people suffering from dyslexia.

Another invention that has now reached the production stage is brilliantly simple.

Called StikAframe it is a versatile, user-friendly, modular building kit for adults and children.

Within minutes, it can be a playpen, a greenhouse, a refugee disaster relief shelter or a Wendy house.

The options are endless and it has already won the support of both the Royal Engineers and Mr Hobbs' children, Isobel, six, Freddie, four, and Felix, two; a commendation from the Earls Court International Invention Fair and coverage on television StikAframe provides a solution to practical early learning for young children as they can easily put the frames together themselves and explore shapes and structures.

It is the educational play potential of the invention that Mr Hobbs is promoting to Sussex schools.

He spent three years developing StikAframe before taking early retirement from the army to devote his energies to turning the invention into a business, with the help of his wife Jo, a GP.

The original idea grew out of attempts to design a stair gate for his children and a plant protection system for his brother, a farmer in Kenya whose crops were suffering storm damage.

Mr Hobbs said: "I came up with a glorified shower curtain connected with Velcro and ended up combining the idea with the stair gate.

"I discovered the frames were much stronger than I thought and the concept could be developed using much larger frames.

"A friend of mine said it had commercial value so I started taking it seriously. I had always intended to leave the army and set up my own business one day and it fitted into the time bracket when I wanted to leave.

"It grew from there. Every time I designed a bit more, I realised there was more that could be done with it."

The basic StikAframe kit includes wooden struts of various lengths with Velcro ties, a range of plastic corners and Velcro-edged PVC panels.

No tools are required, the panels can be easily altered to make different shapes and they are surprisingly strong when put together.

Mr Hobbs has also designed a steel screw anchor for the structures - a portable equivalent of foundations.

He said: "I showed it at Earls Court at the International Invention Fair and got a commendation which gave me confidence to push ahead with the project.

"From there, it was filmed by Carlton TV and subsequently I have been developing it for three separate markets: International disaster relief, gardening accessories and children's educational toys.

"It's a universal building kit which crosses normal marketing boundaries as the same basic frame is used for all applications. You can put any covering on it, from wire mesh for animal runs to plywood for a more permanent structure.

"For children's toys, it could be plastic corrugated card or, for disaster relief, it would be emergency plastic sheeting or a tarpaulin."

Anyone interested in StikAframe should call Mr Hobbs on 01730 890335.