John Cairns obituary

My husband, John Cairns, who has died aged 92, was an author, a consultant on international development and a champion of women's education worldwide.

John was born in Ontario, Canada, to Lily (nee Crawford) amd Hugh Cairns, Scottish immigrants of modest schooling but formidable self-education. His childhood, although shaped by the Depression, was a happy time, about which he later wrote a memoir, My Life As a Kid (2010).