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A
brief history of Graham Layton and the Graham Layton Trust
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 Zaka Rahmatulla, a Pakistani businessman,
set up LRBT to provide free eye treatment in Pakistan for curable
diseases. |
Graham
Layton, who 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.
In 1947,
Graham Layton arrived in Karachi, where over 30 years he built up 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.
In 1984
he returned to Karachi and took Pakistani citizenship. He explained
that ‘this country had 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, he continued as the dynamic chief executive:
and this despite a debilitating stroke in 1989, which left him confined
to a wheel-chair and with a severe impediment of speech. 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 in 1990 for his tireless work for the underprivileged
in Pakistan, with the Sitara-e-Quaid-e-Azam (Star of Pakistan): and
also in the UK, where he was advanced CBE in the 1994 New Year’s
Honours. He died in 1999 leaving the bulk of his estate to further the
work of his remarkable charity.
Outpatient
cost at an LRBT hospital: 23p
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