Michael Birch who founded of the Birch-Stigmat Group in the 1950s died last month after a long illness.
Birch, born in Egypt in 1926 of Anglo-French parentage, trained with British Overseas Airways in Cairo, before joining the RAF in the Second World War, then transferring to the US Army Air Forces, reported the Tunbridge Wells Courier.
On moving to England in 1945, he worked in the arts, including as a tap-dancing chorus boy on the London stage with Leslie Phillips, and went on to sell a sculpture to Sir Henry Moore and throw pots for Picasso at Vallauris, the Courier added. Unable to earn a living as an artist he went on to design frames, but was sacked in 1954 by his last employer, before going on to start his own company - with £15 - out of his sitting room.
Birch-Stigmat went on to become an international group of industrial companies based in Tunbridge Wells manufacturing frames and lenses as well as injection-moulded plastics, a new field. He won a Courtauld Institute of Art Design Award and the Birch Group became famous for his frame designs and innovations in plant and machinery. With this success, more time was spent dealing with bankers, lawyers and accountants than in design and he retired aged 44, claiming the business world had lost its charm.
Birch then began carving Japanese netsuke sculptures, becoming a professional carver and holding his first one-man show at the Eskenari Gallery in London in 1976. He was designated a master carver by Japan's artists' guild, the first such honour for a non-Japanese.
After the death of his wife in 1984, Birch turned to writing, producing novels, short stories and poetry, before returning to carving and producing some of his best works, which are exhibited in major international museums and private collections.