Hugh Austin Windle Pilkington

Hugh Austin Windle Pilkington (18 April 1942 – 16 October 1986) was a British-born philanthropist who contributed to education in East Africa, particularly for refugees from Ethiopia and Eritrea.

He travelled to Africa to translate the Bible and in 1972 he joined the Theology and Philosophy Department of the University of Nairobi, eventually becoming a naturalised Kenyan citizen.

He opened his home in Nairobi to refugees from other parts of Africa, particularly from Ethiopia and Eritrea, and subsequently financed their education in universities in the UK, North America and as far abroad as Fiji.

As the UNHCR High Commissioner at the time, Jean-Pierre Hocké, observed, Hugh was an outstanding example of the capacity of one man to improve the human condition by individual effort.

[5] Before his death he had made arrangements for his personal estate to be used to set up a foundation to promote the education of refugees and in 1988 the Hugh Pilkington Charitable Trust (HPCT) was established in the UK.

Since Hugh's death the Windle Trusts, which are built on the foundation of the work he started, have assisted over twenty thousand young people in Africa whose lives have been blighted by conflict.