Howard Bainbridge

Optician is sad to report that Howard Bainbridge, optical technician and practice director at Cooper and Leatherbarrow Opticians in Darlington, passed away on June 21 aged 83.

Bainbridge joined the practice as an apprentice when he was 15 years old in 1953 and designed, manufactured and fixed spectacles until he retired in October, 2020.

In 1995, Bainbridge was admitted into the Livery of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers where he was made a Freeman of the City of London.

Ellis Leatherbarrow, managing director at Cooper and Leatherbarrow, was mentored by Bainbridge when he joined the practice and his grandfather George trained Bainbridge in the 1950s.