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Hadleigh Nub News delves into the life of former Hadleigh resident, natural scientist Derek Wragge Morely.

Wragge Morley was born in Cambridge in 1920, son of a clergyman.

In his childhood, he developed what would soon become a lifelong interest in ants and published his first paper of ant research at the age of 16.

At just 17, he read two papers for the International Congress of Entomology in Berlin, the youngest person who had ever taken on the chair.

Soon after, he went to the University of Cambridge, studying natural sciences. His scientific prowess earned him the Strong Fellowship for philosophical and scientific research at Cambridge, Macaulay Fellowship for genetical research at Edinburgh, and an invitation lecturer at the Institute of Social Anthropology at Oxford.

His research included genetics, social behaviour, and the behaviour of agricultural pests.

During the Second World War, he investigated insect pests for the Ministry of Agriculture.

He helped to further interest in science in the country which culminated in him becoming science advisor to Picture Post magazine in 1950.

In 1952, he joined the Financial Times as its first ever scientific correspondent and later became science editor.

He wrote many books on ants, including "The Ant World" and a film called "Ant Warfare."

He died at his home in Hadleigh in 1969 at the age of 49, leaving behind his wife, Monica Strutt, and four children.