John Wilson (blind Activist)
Sir John Foster Wilson CBE (20 January 1919, Nottingham – 25 November 1999, Brighton) was a public health advocate, best known for working to prevent blindness in developing countries in Africa and South and South East Asia.
Blinded after an accident at school in Scarborough, John Wilson studied law at Oxford University before becoming Assistant Secretary at the National Institute for the Blind.
Wilson founded several organisations including the Royal Commonwealth Society for the Blind (now known as Sightsavers International), Disability Awareness in Action and the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness. At his instigation, the World Health Organization established the first International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness, for which he served as president from 1974 until his retirement in 1982. He died in 1999.
John Wilson's wife Jean continues the work of Sightsavers International. She was awarded an OBE for her charity work in 1981.
Read more about John Wilson (blind Activist): Published Works, Awards and Honours, Other
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“He rejected, if he did not despise, democratic principles; advocated a government as strong, almost, as a monarchy.... He believed in authority, and he had no faith in the aggregate wisdom of masses of men.”
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