A successful Suffolk businessman who has been selling tractors since the 1940s is to be given a British Empire Medal.

Leonard Tuckwell, 87, founded and was chief executive of LE Tuckwell Ltd, based in Worlingworth, near Debenham.

Through his family-owned farming business he was an early pioneer of the use of liquid fertilizers to boost the production of arable crops.

Today Mr Tuckwell is still chairman of the company, which by 1965 became one of the UK’s first four dealers in John Deere machinery.

His British Empire Medal is also for his work in the community in Suffolk.

For more than 40 years he was a trustee of the Worlingworth Trust Fund, serving as chairman for 22 years. The trust was formed some 200 years ago by businessmen in the village area and provides financial and welfare support to people in need in the community.

Mr Tuckwell has been a strong supporter of the Salvation Army giving regular generous donations as well as to other causes over a 40 year period.

He served in the Far East during the Second World War as a Sergeant working as a mechanic.