NOT many people would like to admit their dad was a bit of a womaniser.Even fewer would detail his many weaknesses and fondness for the soft life in a book.But the daughter of a Teignmouth man has done just that in a biography that charts his fascinating life, warts and all.Egbert Eames may have been one for the ladies and lived a fairly scandalous life, but he also had a social conscience and helped to save hundreds of Jews from the Nazi gas chambers. He was also a passionate campaigner on behalf of the underpaid, and exploited workers in the early part of the last century.He was an enigma, and Lida Logan, 72, has sifted through his archive of documents and letters, and written about his good and bad sides in A Wayward Intellect, which has just been published.She relates how her mother Dorothy was his 'passionate, life long love', and he left his wife and two young sons to be with her.'They lived together "in sin", as it was called then, and produced three children.'But he was a womaniser and had many affairs. He adored women and could not resist them – a charmer – but Dorothy was his true life,' Lida told this newspaper.'In 1956, 33 years after he bought her an engagement ring, they were able to marry. It was in secret, because we thought they were married already.'The couple moved to Teignmouth in 1952, where he built houses in the area. He died there in 1971, aged 79.Described as 'a rebel and freethinker', Bert worked for the Liberal party, speaking at public meetings, researching the terrible working conditions of women in London factories. He became a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and, having travelled for many years in Germany, was fiercely anti-fascist.In the 1930s, he worked tirelessly to publicise Hitler's plans to world conquest, and the destruction of the Jews.But the time war was declared in 1939, he had managed to bring more than 200 German and Austrian Jews – mainly children – to England to save them from the concentration camps.He also campaigned for the Republicans in the Spanish civil war, and during the war worked hard to raise money for medical supplies and armaments for the Red army, which was engaged in ferocious battles with the Germans on the eastern front.But Lida is only well aware of her father's many faults.'His compassion for the poor was deep and sincere, but his desire for women, good food and amusement, was also very deep. So he was pulled first one way, and then another by conflicting passions that he was not disciplined enough to control.'He liked to have money, and he spent it, regardless of whether it was his own or not. He was a hopeless provider and mother had to keep us.'In the early days they lived a life of alternating poverty and affluence, with the bailiff calling, little to eat at times and moonlight flits away from creditors.'Bert became a property developer, restoring and splitting up larger properties. But he was always in trouble, spending some of the deposits he received from an estate agency he set up; falling foul of the Inland Revenue and embarking on affairs, which produced children.'When they moved to Teignmouth, Dorothy had control of the money, but times were still stormy and she periodically left with the "family silver" in a suitcase to stay with my sister in London.'Bert was volatile and unpredictable, but he and Dorothy were bound by their passionate love and stayed together to the end,' said Lida, who lives in Norfolk.She lived with her parents in Eastleigh House, Dawlish Road, Teignmouth, for a short spell in the early 1950s, but the 'bad atmosphere' made her very unhappy and she left, never to return.'I think he understood himself quite well, but that did not mean he could control himself and was often carried away by emotions and desires and went too far or acted impulsively in ways that took him beyond the bounds of sense or morality,' Lida added.Bert's older daughter, Yvonne Cox, 84, still lives in Teignmouth and recalls an 'amazing man' who was very loving.'I would sit on his lap and he would talk about politics, a lot of which went over my head. Father was my mentor and friend and I am so pleased my sister has written his biography.'A Wayward Intellect, the Life of Egbert Eames, is published by Spire Publishing at £10.50. It is on sale in Teignmouth at Quayside Bookshop, and WH Smith.