On 5 January 1950, Jean Wilson, who has died aged 103, inaugurated her charity, the British Empire Society for the Blind, answering the phone to journalists with “Which department would you like?” in a bid to conceal that it was such a tiny, two-person operation.
Founded with her husband, John, and renamed Sightsavers in 1986, from these acorn beginnings it became a leading charity tackling blindness in developing countries. Today each year it funds more than 9m eye examinations and half a million sight-saving operations in 30 countries.
