Obituary: Michael Birch

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.