Obituary: Malcolm Polley

Optician is sad to report that Malcolm Polley, former chair of the Federation of Manufacturing Opticians (FMO), passed away on February 10 aged 89.

Polley started his optical career making tortoiseshell frames for Baileys manufacturers in Hadleigh, Essex before working in dispensing and then managing at Clifford Brown in Sloane Square, London for 11 years.

In 1974, Polley moved his family to Gloucestershire where he started his 32-year career at Norville, first as a sales manager then sales and marketing director.

Frank Norville, former chair at Norville, said: ‘Malcolm was a key part of the wonderful world of optics and was a steadfast team player as optics grew through the closing years of the 20th century. He was always willing to go the extra mile and was respected by so many throughout manufacturing and retail industry. He will be greatly missed – a friend of 50 years.’

Polley was chair of the FMO and on retiring from Norville in 2006, he took on the role of chief executive officer at the FMO where he led on the development of the Optrafair exhibition.

Beyond optics, Polley was captain of the Boys Brigade in Essex during the 1970s and coached Gloucester and the West of England hockey team during the ‘80s. He leaves his wife Jean, two daughters, a son and their families.

Polley's former colleagues also remembered him: Peter Turner said: ‘Malcolm, I have known for too many years to mention. We worked together growing Norville, mainly with our famous roadshows covering all points of England, Wales and Scotland even the Channel Islands, something many of our competitors then followed. We have been friends ever since’; Andrew Actman, past FMO chair, said: ‘Through our work together at the FMO I found Malcolm to be a highly skilful gentleman, always fair, always willing to listen and good to have on your side in negotiations’; and Graham Coates added: ‘You can be remembered for being a good business leader, or an ambassador of lenses but, Malcolm was, himself, a very good hockey player and played matches all over the country.  He was also great fun to be with.’