The Entokil Man, Laurence Fleming

Harold Maxwell-Lefroy, the founder of Rentokil, was a maverick and a man of enormous drive and energy. From an early age he was fascinated with the insect world, and his thorough understanding of species’ life cycles and habits, in its practical application, was to change the face of agriculture in several parts of the world. He was among the first really to apply the scientific method to dealing with insect pests, and the agriculture of the Caribbean and India still owes him an enormous debt.

His Indian Insect Pests is still in print, an invaluable resource to Indian agriculturalists. In the Caribbean he saved the sugar crop which had been ravaged by pests, and was then sent to India as the official entomologist.