Walter Thomas James Morgan CBE FRS (5 October 1900 – 10 February 2003) was a British biochemist noted for his work on the immunochemistry of antigens and described as 'one of the pioneers of immunochemistry'. Early life He was born in Ilford to Walter Morgan, a solicitor's clerk at the Royal Courts of Justice and his wife Anne. He was barred from attending primary school for a year after a ringworm infection on his head; the treatment, irradiation, caused hair to fall out, and his parents refused to sign the waiver absolving the health authority from responsibility should the hair not grow back. Due to this the family moved house to Little Ilford, where after leaving the local primary school he attended Raine's Foundation School, where he became interested in mechanical engineering. His growing interest in chemistry led him to start his own laboratory in a garden shed using chemicals bought from a supplier in London, with his main area of focus being the creation of "dyes and explosive compounds". The start of World War I in 1914 led to a drop in teaching standards as the teachers were drafted into the armed forces, and as a result he left school in 1916 to work for the Gas Light and Coke Company, which he left to work at a government-operated factory in Greenwich as he found the atmosphere at the GLCC unpleasant. Aware that he would be drafted into the military on his 18th birthday, Morgan instead joined early so that he could pick which branch to serve in. He picked the Royal Navy, and due to his experience working with chemicals he was appointed to , producing chemicals and equipment for the navy, including smoke screen floats. Academia He was demobilised in 1919 and offered a government grant to study at university, but his demobilisation came too late in the year for him to start his chemistry degree then. Instead he began his studies in 1920 at East London College. The degree examinations at the time were held after the summer holiday rather than before, so to help with his family's dire financial situation (his father had died in 1918, leaving his mother financially destitute) he again worked for the Gas Light and Coke Company as a junior chemist, where he was tasked with finding a better way to extract natural gas from coke than the process used at