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GRAHAM LAYTON established the Graham Layton Trust (GLT) in 1984 to support the work of the Layton Rahmatulla Benevolent Trust (LRBT) in Pakistan. Graham Layton and his friend Zaka Rahmatulla, a Pakistani businessman, set up LRBT to provide free eye treatment for curable diseases in Pakistan.
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Graham Layton was born in 1917, grew up in north London and was educated at Wellingborough School in Northamptonshire. In 1940 he volunteered as a sapper in the Royal Engineers and, after serving in Belgium and France, was evacuated from Dunkirk. Commissioned into the Indian Army in 1942, he served with distinction in the campaign to recapture Burma with the rank of Major in command of a Royal Engineers Artisan Works Company. Appointed MBE following the successful construction of the Eastern Army Boat Bridge across the Barak River in Assam, he went on to lead his team to build 1,200 boats to carry supplies down the Chindwin in the operation to recapture Rangoon. On this occasion Layton earned the OBE and subsequently completed his army service with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Graham Layton arrived in Karachi in 1947 where he established and, over 30 years, grew the MacDonald Layton Company, one of the largest and most successful construction companies in Pakistan. Among his achievements was the construction of the Parliament building in Islamabad and much of the heart of modern commercial Karachi. He retired from active involvement in the business in 1977 and returned to England to develop a small house-building business in St Albans.
He returned to Karachi in 1984 and took Pakistani citizenship, explaining, “this country has been good to me. This is where I made all my money, so why not give something back?”.
Throughout the development and rapid expansion of the LRBT hospital network and right up to the last week of his life, Graham Layton continued as the dynamic Chief Executive – this despite a debilitating stroke in 1989 which left him confined to a wheelchair and with a severe speech impediment. Following the stroke, Graham Layton always remained the hands-on manager, personally supervising the construction of six more eye hospitals. He had an outstanding ability to motivate and generate loyalty in those around him.
Graham Layton was honoured with the Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam (Star of Pakistan) in 1990 for his tireless work for the underprivileged in Pakistan; he was advanced a CBE in the UK’s 1994 New Year’s Honours. Graham Layton died in 1999 leaving the bulk of his estate to further the work of his remarkable charities.
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