Alfred Lesser the renowned ocular prosthetics specialist passed away in Haifa, Israel last September at the age of 98.
Alfred was born in Berlin, Germany in 1916. When the Nazi regime took over in Germany, in 1933 his parents saw the writing on the wall and sent him to England, aged 17 to complete his schooling and matriculate in London. Alfred then enrolled in the Northampton Poly (later the City University) to study ophthalmic optics. He graduated with an excellent diploma qualifying with the British Optical Association and later took their higher diploma to become an FBOA HD. In 1937 he opened up an ophthalmic practice in Leicester.
When the war started, he was like many other German refugees, interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man. However the government soon realised that as a young man he would be far more useful to the war effort. He was released and recruited to the Pioneer Corp. He served with the Royal Engineers ending up as a staff sargeant. He was in charge of optical equipment and gun sights.
At the end of the war he joined an optician’s practice in the east end of London. Here he learned his skills as an ocular prosthetics specialist. However, not satisfied with the perfection of the work which was carried out there he decided to establish himself in the hope that he could achieve better results. Thus in 1949 he took rooms at the then Middlesex Hospital constantly striving for perfection in matching eyes and the perfect joint movement of both eyes.
In those days only glass artificial eyes were available. Later as the years progressed contact lenses, especially haptic lenses, with hand painted irises were used. His reputation in Europe grew, patients from various parts of Europe called on him. He decided to open up consulting rooms in Paris. In the early 1950s more consulting rooms were opened in Brussels and also Dublin. He commuted between all centres frequently.
In 1967 he lost his wife. At that time the Hadassa Hospital in Jerusalem called upon him to run the ocular prosthetics department for them. A few years later he met Jutta who became his second wife. They decided to relocate and live in Haifa where he ran a clinic for ocular prosthetics until 2006 reaching the age of 90 and up until then still commuting to the various clinics he ran in Europe.
Alfred is survived by his wife Jutta, two daughters and a son, who is a retired DO and eight grandchildren, one of whom is an optometrist in Manchester.