LOOKING AFTER THE EYESIGHT OF FORCES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 59, 23 June 1948, Page 4

LOOKING AFTER THE EYESIGHT OF FORCES

Development of optical services in the Armed Forces was traced by Mr R. Boyd, an Auckland optician, in an address to the Whakatane Rotary Club last week. Mr Boyd said that, when recruiting began in the early part of the recent war, methods of taking eyesight tests were inadequate, but later, in 1941, the Health Department took advantage of the. Institute of Opticians’ offer to help with medical boards and soon took charge of the eyesight testing department of medical examinations. Later on, the Army Optician Service was formed and operated fully from August, 1942, and established a complete check of the eyesight of the men under its care. A complete unit, the first in the history of the Allied forces, went overseas with the New Zealand Third Division to the Pacific. Finally, the service was expanded to cover Air Force and Navy personnel as well, with mobile and static units. Most complete of all was the Middle East unit which could do a complete job, even down to grinding lenses from the rough glass. Here in New Zealand the service handled ex-prisoners of war, Japanese and German internee’s and Pol- i ish evacue children. Since the war the work of caring for the eyes of the Forces had been carried on by the opticians, who were now back in their civilian practices.