Obituary: Robert A Turner

Robert, born in Essex in 1918, was already an RAF trained engineer when he became interested in optics.

A meeting with Joseph Dallos was the beginning of a lifelong dedication to contact lenses. In 1948 he became Dallos’ assistant at the Contact Lens Centre, 18 Cavendish Square, and acquired knowledge in glass scleral lens fitting and manufacture.

In 1954 he set up his own company, GT Optics, for contact lens and machinery production.

He retained his interest in patient care and continued working in his private rooms and in NHS hospitals using plastic materials for scleral lenses, but for corneal lenses he developed a soft plastic material, Flexi. GT Optics and Flexi gained fame and he became a well-known lecturer all over Europe and opened a second laboratory in Portugal.