THE founder of one of the world's leading sight charities, Sir John Wilson, is to be honoured with a rose garden in his home town.

Sir John, of Scarborough, North Yorkshire, who was the founder of Sight Savers International, was blinded in the chemistry laboratories at Scarborough Boys High School at the age of 12.

However, he went on to commit his life to establishing the extent and causes of blindness in Third World countries.

He died just weeks after being made a Freeman of Scarborough in September 1999.

Now a rose garden - which is in the shape of an eye - has been created in Sir John's honour, in The Crescent, Scarborough.

It will be dedicated on June 12 at a ceremony being attended by his widow, Lady Jean Wilson and the Mayor, Councillor Freda Coultas, together with Sir John Coles, chairman of Sight Savers International's board of trustees.

The charity was formed in 1950 and since then it has been able to restore the sight of nearly five million people and treated 54 million others for potentially blinding conditions.