Group Captain Leonard Cheshire, VC, DM, DSC, DFC was born on September 7, 1917. He was educated at Stowe School and Merton College, Oxford and was commissioned in reserve of Air Forces on joining the Oxford University Air Squadron in 1936. he took a regular commission in 1939 and during World War II served almost without interruption for nearly five years in Bomber Command. His record of 100 operational bombing missions was unequalled, and in the process he pioneered new techniques of low-level precision bombing and target marking. His achievements were recognized by award of the Victoria Cross and Distinguished Service Order with two bars, and the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He was personally selected by Winston Churchill as the only British Service Observer at the dropping of nuclear bomb on Nagasaki in August 1945.

He left the Royal Air Force after the war, and after embarking on a community scheme for ex-servicemen, which failed in 1948, founded at Le Court in Hampshire the first Cheshire Home for physically disabled. Today the Leonard Cheshire Foundation operates over 280 such Homes in 48 countries throughout the world. The homes care for the sick, without restriction of age, sex, race, religion or means. The majority care for the physically disabled although a proportion caters for the mentally disabled as well. The Foundation is supported by voluntary contributions worldwide.

If today people's consciousness has been roused to the needs and aspirations of the disabled, this is in no small measure due to the pioneering work of Leonard Cheshire. No single individual has done so much as he to instill in the minds of the disabled a sense of dignity, self-respect and purposefulness. Truly what the Cheshire Homes epitomize, is the history of one man's faith in the brotherhood of human race and his conviction that ordinary men and women have a duty to help others less fortunate than themselves.

Leonard Cheshire opened the first Home in India in Bombay in 1955. Thereafter he has been present on most occasions whenever a new Home was opened to give his personal blessings.

Leonard Cheshire was married to Sue Ryder, herself the Founder of the Ryder Foundation. 1975, they were jointly nominated by the International Variety Club as the Humanitarians of the Year.

On the February 6, 1981 the International Year of the Disabled Person, Leonard Cheshire was awarded the Order of Merit by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for outstanding service to humanity. The Order is limited to just 24 members and the award is one of only four in the Queen's personal gift.