Obituary: John de Carle

Optician sadly reports the death of contact lens pioneer and innovator John de Carle at the age of 96.

The Mayfair-based optometrist, who was the first president of the British Contact Lens Association, pioneered the creation of soft permanent contact lenses and helped to bring improved vision to people throughout the world.

Having qualified as an optometrist at Northampton Polytechnical College in London in 1945 de Carle was called up by the Royal Air Force to work in military hospitals, before moving into his own practice in Bond Street.

Fascinated by science, de Carle came up with the idea of producing a soft permanent contact lens, subsequently experimenting with complex polymers to realise the concept while also developing contact lens solutions.