Fellowship certificate of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers for Leslie Roy Caldwell Werner
 Catalogue Number: 2107 Fellowship certificate of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers for Leslie Roy Caldwell Werner Category: Papers Sub-Category: Certificate, diploma Association: Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1912 Time Period: 1900 to 1939 Place Of Publication/Manufacture: London, UK Publisher/Manufacturer: Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers Description Of Item: Diploma of Fellowship certificate of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers for Leslie Roy Caldwell Werner printed on brown (stained?) paper pasted on a stiff composite board, 490 mm x 385 mm, inscribed in copperplate writing is the name and address of the recipient Leslie Werner of 336 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, the date November 1912, and the number of the certificate, 2374. It is signed by the Examiners and the Director of Examiners. It is also signed by the Master of the Guild, two Wardens and the Clerk. Above the signatures of the examiners are the words 'Passed with distinction. First order of merit'. A red seal of the company is affixed. In the upper middle third is inscribed the name 'Raphael Prizeman'. The decorative surround includes pictures of (1) microscopes (Hookes and a modern binocular microscope), (2) Crookes radiometer, a spectroscope, (3) Cook's sextant and A Davis quadrant (4) Oxford university observatory (5) a modern equatorial telescope and Huyghen's aerial telescope and (6) The Great Pyramid observatory. At the top is the coat of arms of the City of London bearing two winged gyphons and below is the coat of arms of the Company. 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. Condition: The stiff mounting board is broken into three parts vertically and edges, especially the upper edge is damaged Location: Archive room. West wall. Unit 2 Drawer 4 |