List of diploma holders and hand book
 Catalogue Number: 1803 List of diploma holders and hand book Category: Book Sub-Category: Booklet Institution: The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1957 Time Period: 1940 to 1999 Place Of Publication/Manufacture: London Publisher/Manufacturer: Hatton Press Ltd Description Of Item: Green printed paper cover, 192 pages including title page and preliminaries, advertisements through text, and index of advertisers on page 191 - 192. It includes (1) the names of the Master, Wardens, the Clerk and the members of the Court of Assistants as they were in 1957, (2) the Examiners to the Company and the Director of Examinations, (3) a list of the Masters who have been Lord Mayor of London, (19 of them from 1845 to 1948) (4) a brief history of the Company and its examinations (13 pages), (5) a list of the then recognised (optometric) training institutions and clinics, (6) two lists of the holders of the diploma in ophthalmic optics of the Company by examination (FSMC) from 1898 to 1957, one in alphabetical order and the other by region by country and State. Historical Significance: The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers is a London craft guild. It was founded in 1629 and continues today. Although it has a history spanning close to 400 years, it did not do much until 1898 when it began to offer courses of instruction and examination for persons desiring to become Fellows of the Company (FSMC) and trained opticians/optometrists, a function it handed to the British College of Optometrists in 1979. A number of Australian optometrists qualified in the first half of the 20th C by obtaining Fellowship of the Company (FSMC). The booklet lists (page 179 and 180) eighteen Australians as holders of the FSMC including some notable names, viz H R Brier, CW Kett, WG Kett, CM Werner (who qualified in 1898), and his sons, FCN and LRC Werner. There are two women Australian optometrists in the list, a Miss ELM Pink and Miss DE Williams. This booket should be read in conjunction with two short histories of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers Cat No 521 and 532 and of the London Livery Companies Cat No 1801. How Acquired: Ex Nathan Library Condition: Good except library stamp and markings Location: Archive office. Pamphlet and ephemera filing cabinet. Drawer 4 |