An insurance clerk who never left home and died in his late parents' modest bungalow has left almost £700,000 to charities in his will.

Jeremy Flegg died in the Royal Marsden Hospital earlier this year after a short battle with leukaemia.

Mr Flegg, who was 58, left behind an estate of £677,225.

It will be shared between ten charities, mostly concerned with animals or railways.

He was born in Chiselhurst, Kent, and began his working life with the Royal Exchange Group in Beckenham.

In 1970 he and his parents moved to Burgess Hill after taking a job in Brighton with the newly-formed Guardian Royal Exchange.

He remained there until 1990 when he transferred to Croydon before taking early retirement in 1996.

Following the death of his father 12 years ago he joined Burgess Hill's United Reformed Church, eventually becoming a church elder.

He was secretary of Brighton's Insurance Institute for 25 years and was made honorary secretary of the Southern Regional Forum in 1999.

Outside of work and his more formal duties, Mr Flegg devoted his life to studying Greek, heraldry, model trains and classical music.

Friends described him as eccentric, quiet and polite and were surprised at how much money he left.

One said: "He was the kind of chap who you always felt you had to buy the drinks for - it was just the way he was."

Former colleague Bill Mansbridge, of Peacehaven, said: "I am quite amazed at that amount but I knew he had a head for the stock market.

"He was unfailingly courteous and a true gentleman."

The Reverend Andrew Fairchild, minister of the URC where Mr Flegg sang and preached, said: "He was a very faithful member of the church, he was very well read and he was exceptionally well educated. But he was never arrogant and was a great loss to the life of the church."