Ken, on the right (wth his twin brother Gordon) , the man and his compassionate vision made the important and urgent work of  Vision 4 Children (The Littler Trust) possible . Ken himself suffered from an eye condition; successfully treated for the relief of pain.

Ken and his close association with our Chair, Consultant Ophthalmologist Arvind Chandna led him and his brother Gordon to provide a generous bequest which made it possible for V4C to be set up. Ken saw at first hand, through Arvind's volunteer work, the enormous suffering caused by unnecessary treatable blindness encountered by children and families of children. He also saw that it was possible to fight a winning battle against the burden of global childhood blindness through practical sustainable programmes.

Ken was a painter and his landscapes were much admired. His quiet spoken attitude and gentleness of purpose was reflected in his paintings. His painting of 'Children on the Beach flying a kite' inspired us to choose the Kite as our logo: a symbol of aspiration, hope, universal recogntion and flying high in the world sky; all all the values we cherish at Vision 4 Children, the charity.

Sadly, Ken is no longer with us but his inspiring life and work continue to guide us in our work. You can support us in carrying out this important and urgent work by your generous donations.

A portrait by Sarah Samuels

 Ken (on the right) and his identical twin Gordon first came to my gallery in Chester in 1991. A member of South Liverpool Art Group, he came to visit a one-man exhibition of paintings by James Longueville PS RBSA. As he was leaving, he said: "I shall throw away all my pastels. I will never be able to paint like James." "You mustn’t do that," I smiled at him, "you must try harder."
Three months later he came to see me again. A lot of amateur painters bring their work to show me, but I was not prepared for what I saw that day. The paintings were exceptional. They were not the work of an amateur.
"All my life, I have had a compulsion to paint," Ken said, "and when the top of the wardrobe became full of paintings, Gordon and I would go down to the allotment to burn them."

Ken was self-taught, a pastelist, an impressionist, influenced by Longueville and Seago. He had a delicacy of palette, a softness of touch, and a desire to unite that which he saw with the emotions of the viewer.
As a youngster, he won a painting competition, and his picture was featured in the Liverpool Echo. A stranger called at their home offering to pay for Ken to attend art school, but Ken’s father said: "No sons of mine are going to Art School; they will do proper jobs."
They became electricians for the, then, Liverpool Corporation. Ken became a belated full-time professional painter in 1992 and his work came to hang alongside well known British artists. He went on to have solo sell-out shows in Chester and also sold in the Cotswolds and London.
Only one of Ken’s eyes had sight. Such was, and is, the generous nature of the identical twins, that before Ken died they set up a charity for research into eye diseases found in babies and children with the aim that no child be needlessly blind.
"Vision 4 Children (The Littler Trust)" was born.
Ken experienced acute eye pain without complaint. He did not want others to suffer as he had suffered, or be needlessly disadvantaged. His bequest will enrich the lives of future generations as his paintings have enriched the lives of those collectors who were fortunate enough to buy one, or several of his paintings.