In the summer of 1814, a man by the name of Thomas Young stayed in Worthing.

The 41-year-old respected physician and physicist travelled from his home in London by horse-drawn coach in a gruelling nine-hour journey.

Young, a man fascinated by Egyptology, unloaded his luggage in South Street and checked into one of the town's hotels or boarding houses.

At the time of the Napoleonic Wars, Worthing was a fashionable health resort.

Young may have stayed at Warwick House or The Steyne Hotel. Perhaps he took a room in Bloss' boarding house, in Bedford Row, or Miss Hawkins' lodgings in Warwick Street.

He probably enjoyed a glass of brandy in the Sea House Hotel, New Inn or the Nelson Inn before attending a show at the theatre in Ann Street.

Working by candlelight back in his room, Young intently studied a copy of ancient text transcribed from the Rosetta Stone, a slab of black basalt measuring 3ft 9in long and 2ft 4in wide.

Young was fascinated by the hieroglyphic inscriptions of ancient Egypt, which for centuries had defied translation.

The stone was inscribed with two languages, Egyptian and Greek, in three writing styles - hieroglyphics, demotic script (a cursive form of Egyptian hieroglyphics) and the Greek alphabet.

Comparing the styles, Young was able to make an historic breakthrough in understanding what the symbols meant.

He managed to decipher the name of a great Egyptian king called Ptolemy, and at the same time paved the way for other academics to unlock the secrets of the pyramids.

The remarkable relic, dating back to 196BC, was discovered by the French in August 1799 at a place called Rosetta, about 35 miles north east of Alexandria.

At the time Napoleon was bidding to conquer the land of the Pharaohs and had sent a 35,000-strong expeditionary force to Africa. They were forced to surrender after the French fleet was destroyed by ships led by Horatio Nelson at the Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay.

The Rosetta Stone fell into English hands and nearly 200 years later, can still be seen at the British Museum in London.

A French scholar by the name of Jean-Francois Champollion took up where Young left off and after much frustration and heartache, managed to finally crack the code in 1822.

Rather than working together, Young and Champollion regarded each other as rivals, sparking bitter recriminations, with both claiming to be the original codecracker.

Young died in 1829 and is largely forgotten. However, without that visit to Worthing in 1814, we may still be looking at hieroglyphics and wondering what those remarkable symbols mean.

Janet Wilton, chairman of the Sussex Egyptology Society, which has 250 members, was surprised to learn of the missing link between Young and Worthing, highlighted in a new book, The Code Book, by Simon Singh.

He wrote: "When Young heard about the Rosetta Stone, it became an irresistible challenge. In the summer of 1814 he set off on his annual holiday to the coastal resort of Worthing, taking with him a copy of three inscriptions.

"Young's breakthrough came when he focused on a set of hieroglyphics surrounded by a loop, called a cartouche."

Janet Wilton said: "He is completely forgotten, unlike the Frenchman who took over. I believe he was a very clever young man. His work was spot on. It is just a shame he has been left to one side."