Donald Ezekiel AM: passionate and innovative contact lens practitioner and manufacturer

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Notes

1. Batavia is the former name (from 1619 to 1949) of modern Jakarta, Indonesia.

2. The Diploma in Optometry (WA) was run under the auspices of the Western Australian Optometrists Registration Board with significant help from the University of Western Australia. It ran as a three‐year part‐time course from an initial intake in 1947 (first diplomas conferred early 1951) until completion of its last course at the end of 1968 (last diploma conferred early 1969). Only about 27 optometrists graduated with this diploma.

3. Josef Dallos (1905‐1979) was a Jewish Hungarian ophthalmologist, who was the first to mould scleral lenses using Negocol and Hominite and the inventor of lens fenestration (holes). He was one of the most respected figures in the field for his contact lens innovations in the 1930s. Dallos was smuggled out of Hungary by Ida Mann and others and taken to the safety of England in 1937. He practised in London in premises adjoining Hamblins.

4. Professor Ida Mann was a distinguished ophthalmologist, acclaimed for her pioneering research work on embryology and development of the eye. She undertook research that revealed the pathology of mustard gas keratitis, which afflicted soldiers from the First World War some 10 to 15 years after they had survived a mustard gas attack. Although she did not find a cure, Dame Ida found she was able to alleviate symptoms through the use of scleral contact lenses, which was a topic of common interest to her and Don.

5. The English Heritage Blue Plaque scheme was founded in 1866. It commemorates the link between notable figures of the past and the buildings in which they lived and worked.

6. Polymer Technology Corporation is a major manufacturer of rigid gas permeable contact lens materials. It is now a subsidiary of Bausch & Lomb, producing rigid lens materials under the Boston brand name.