The livery companies of the City of London

Historical Significance: This is a short history of London Livery Companies (Guilds), one of which was the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. The author, Roland Champness, MA, LLM, FSA, CC was a past Master and a Warden and Clerk of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers. and office holder in two other London Guilds. The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers was founded in 1629 and continues today. It was a craft guild for some 250 years, often not doing much, but 1898 it began to offer courses of instruction and exanination 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). This booket should be read in conjunction with two short histories of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers Cat No 521 and 532.