Harry J. Birchall joined
C. W. Dixey in
Birmingham
during 1904, becoming a partner in 1921 and eventually its managing director.He was a council member of the Guild of Dispensing Opticians and a Fellow
of the Association of Dispensing Opticians.In addition, he held the FSMC and FBOA qualifications.By reputation, he was a quiet, retiring man with a penchant for loud
American cars although he never sought the limelight.
Birchall fitted Zeiss scleral lenses at the Dixey premises
in Cavendish Square
between 1930 and the outbreak of the war in 1939.At this time he began to work with the engineer, Cyril Winter, in the
company's engineering shop at
114Marylebone
Lane
to build a contact lens lathe. Ultimately
this was used for the manufacture of the first PMMA scleral lenses in the
UK.
