Len Missen was born in Essex. He married Dorothy M Bergan in Fulham in 1947, and with her joined the Borough Bottega under David Bomberg the following year. In 1950 Missen moved to Cornwall, where he ran the Penzance Pottery alongside Anthony RICHARDS, until his death in a car accident at Long Rock near Penzance in 1955.

Relatives who have some of his pottery in the family, are eager to find the whereabouts of any of his other work, and the portrait of his wife Dorothy, which was in the family some years ago, but lost sight of at some point.