Charles Granston Richards (fl 1908-1996) travelled to Kenya, 1935 with the Church Missionary Society, his special responsibility being the encouragement of literacy and literature among East Africans. Working through the Church Missionary Society in Nairobi, he became a publisher. He wrote the report which led to the foundation of the East African Literature Bureau in 1948, and was its first Director, a post he held for 15 years.

In 1963 he transferred to the Oxford University Press to build up its publishing in East Africa, but was released to work part-time in the setting up of the Christian Literature Fund of the World Council of Churches. He was Director of the Fund, 1965-1970 and of its successor, the Agency for Christian Literature Development, 1970-1974, working constantly 'in the field'. On his retirement as Director, the Agency was replaced by the Print Media Development Unit. Richards kept up an active association with this and with other literature and literacy-based agencies. Other activities included serving on the British Committee on Literacy and the conducting of an evaluation of the South African Bureau of Literacy.