AN OPTICIAN technician who has had almost 70 years of service in an opticians in Darlington has retired.

Howard Bainbridge, 82, has finally finished his career at Cooper and Leatherbarrow Opticians.

He started at the company as an apprentice at the age of 15 years-old, in 1953 under the tutelage of George Leatherbarrow, the grandfather of the current managing director Ellis Leatherbarrow, after leaving school.

Apart from two years of national service in Germany when he was 18, Howard has spent most of his career at Cooper and Leatherbarrow, hand-designing, manufacturing and fixing spectacles, as well as many other responsibilities.

Being one of the first in Darlington to fit varifocal lenses in the 1960s, Howard was honoured for his contribution to the optical industry in 1995 when he was admitted into the Worshipful Company of Spectaclemakers, through which he was made a Freeman of the City of London.

Howard has continued to work three or four days of the week well into his 80s, which he has done since he returned to his role in September after self-isolating during the summer.

Ellis Leatherbarrow, current managing managing director of the company, said: “Howard told me on my first day:‘You’ve got to realise this is a proper job, so no messing around. If you’re going to work here you’re going to do your job properly’.

“That was Howard's ethos and it has now become the company's ethos, of having the highest standards of work at all times in everything we do.

“Howard drilled that into me and I’ve continued to drill that into everyone who works here.

“Howard has had almost 70 years of living and breathing the company, he is here every morning at 8 o’clock and rarely out of the place before half six.”

“He was supposed to have retired two decades ago, the concession then was that he would only work four days a week for five more years, yet here we are 20 years later and he’s only just getting round to it.

“Amongst his work in Cooper and Leatherbarrow’s workshop, he has also managed the company’s facilities and HR requirements, as well as handling negotiations with lens suppliers.

Ellis added: “If you ever had a problem, Howard was your go-to man, he is irreplaceable.

“Howard has single-handedly run our workshop for 45 years, but he’s known throughout the industry as a hard but fair negotiator, and he has always been 100 per cent committed to the company.

“As a colleague and friend, he has been totally dedicated and reliable, a man of the highest integrity and a pleasure to work with.

“He has been an absolute rock and, although we know it will be hard to stop him popping back into the practice after his retirement, we’re going to miss him dearly.”

Howard said: “I have been dreading retirement but after self-isolating over the summer I knew this would be the right time to finally call it a day.

“But I leave the practice happy in the knowledge that Cooper and Leatherbarrow will continue to be the independent and family practice it has always been, with the same standards and beliefs our patients have come to expect over these years.

“It just leaves me to say thank you to everyone who I have crossed paths with in the optical industry, as well as pay my gratitude to my colleagues for their support, and greatest thanks to our patients who have continued to remain loyal to us.”

Howard’s final day was yesterday Thursday October 29.

Cooper and Leatherbarrow was established in 1902 by Earnest Cooper in a former photographers business on the corner of Russell Street and Northgate in Darlington.

George Leatherbarrow joined the practice in 1912 and became Cooper and Leatherbarrow in the 1930s.