Diploma certificate of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers for Leslie Roy Caldwell Werner

Historical Significance: In the late 19th C and early 20th C, optometrists often travelled overseas to obtain training and qualifications. Some studied for the Fellowship of the British Optical Association (FBOA) and others the Fellowship of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers (FSMC). Other early Australian optometrists had migrated from the UK and already had British qualifications. The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, UK. The Company was founded by a Royal Charter of Charles I in 1629; it was granted the status of a Livery Company in 1809. The Company was empowered to set regulations and standards for optical devices; this was eroded by the Industrial Revolution, after which mechanical advancements made trade restrictions difficult to enforce. The Company acquired the right, however, to set examinations that opticians had to pass before practising. This power was surrendered to the British College of Ophthalmic Opticians (now titled the College of Optometrists) in 1979. Roy Werner FSMC (1891-1990) was a principal of one of three major optometry practices in Melbourne in the first half of the 20th C. He was a foundation member of the College. He was one of the activitists in optometric educational advancement in the 1940s. He was a member of the first Registration Board and one of the Victorian Optical Association fellowship examiners prior to 1940. He was made an Honorary life member of the College 1960 when the new building in Cardigan Street was opened and a number of honorary life memberships were conferred to mark the occasion. The Werner practice in the city has long since closed but the name was continued in a practice in Toorak owned by Ray Spargo and subsequently by Helen Robbins. A profile of the Werner family can be found under the tab 'People who made history' on this web site.