Born in China and educated in England Colin Little came to New Zealand circa 1934 to work for his grandfather Edward Selby Little, (who founded ICI in China and headed the Australian Trade Commission to China). Edward Selby Little had retired to Kerikeri where he had citrus orchards and became known as the "father of Kerikeri'. Colin, aged 21 when he came to New Zealand, had a degree in horticulture and for four years managed his grandfather's Kerikeri estate.

Colin had returned to England on a trip and when war was declared joined up with the Royal Army Service Corps which, at the time, was the only unit accepting volunteer officer cadets (the only NZ force then in the UK was a machinegun battalion which had a full complement). He got a commission as 2nd Lieutenant and served in France, being present at the evacuation of Dunkirk, and subsequently went as a volunteer to India (late 1940). In India he gained the rank of Lt. Colonel and in 1941 transferred to the India Branch Transport and became OC 47 General Transport Company, Royal Indian Army Service Corps, 14th Army in Burma.

During the Japanese advance he worked on the Burma road coordinating supplies and the movement of refugees, returning to England when the war ended in August 1945, and later coming back to New Zealand.

Following his return to New Zealand Colin graduated in science from Auckland University; worked for eight years as a technical officer with Imperial Chemical Industries; graduated with a PhD from Oxford followed by three years working with the UN International Atomic Energy Agency creating laboratories in Burma and East Pakistan. Dr Little then worked for the British Government publicising UK research on aquatic weed control followed by a series of placements with the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in various parts of the world, and a brief assignment for the World Bank on the utilisation of coconut timber in Indonesia. Dr Little retired back to New Zealand in the mid-1970s returning initially to the Bay of Islands where he established an environmental trust.

Colin and his wife Margaret later retired to Auckland. Colin died in 2014 at the age of 101.