Remembering Alan Pattinson

For five decades, contact lens optician, Alan Pattinson, solved the most head-scratching contact lens conundrums known to Fife and the surrounding area.

His tools were a keratometer, a slit lamp, and an unwavering determination to do right by his patients.

“You felt like you were his only patient. He spent a lot of time getting everything correct for you – right down to the small details,” Elinor Graham, 52, recalled.

This sense of work as a vocation rather than source of income saw Pattinson conduct his final contact lens clinic a week before his death on 13 May at the age of 77.

While he had mentioned retirement to some of his patients, this was designed as a gentle nudge to make arrangements for their contact lens care – protecting them from the more difficult truth that the blood cancer he had lived with for years had become terminal.

Patients who spoke with OT described Pattinson as not only a dedicated contact lens practitioner, but a true friend.

Graham first saw Pattinson as an 18-year-old after undergoing cataract operations in both eyes.

The type 1 diabetic recalled being terrified when she went in for her appointment, but Pattinson’s manner immediately put her at ease.

“He came into the waiting area with the biggest smile I had ever seen. He shook my hand, patted my shoulder and told me that everything was going to be fine,” she said.

Michele Hamilton, 61, first had contact lenses fitted by Pattinson as a -20.0D myope at the age of 14.

“He had a lovely voice. It was a soothing, comforting voice. He was quiet but very approachable,” she said.

John McGiffen, who has corneal grafts, had regular appointments with Pattinson after being fitted with scleral lenses in 2014.

“Every issue I had, he dealt with. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t fix. He was an absolute gentleman with the patience of a saint,” he said.

He was an absolute gentleman with the patience of a saint

Early life

Pattinson was born on 21 September, 1947 in Stanley, County Durham.

He was the youngest of three children. His father was a coal miner and his mother worked as a housekeeper before having her own children.

“He didn’t come from a family that had a tradition of further education, but my grandfather was absolutely adamant that no son of his was going to go down the mine,” his daughter, Eleanor Porter, shared.

After the family moved to Wolverhampton, Pattinson’s father spotted an advertisement in the newspaper looking for an apprentice optician.

Pattinson took up the apprenticeship, completing his dispensing optician qualification on block release with first class honours.

“I think he was lucky that he found his calling. He loved the science and problem-solving side of it, but he also loved dealing with people,” Porter said.

While studying, Pattinson met his future wife Susan Pattinson (née Willcox). The couple worked in Edinburgh before relocating to Kirkcaldy to establish their own business, A & SM Pattinson Opticians.

Susan died in her early 40s when Porter was 14 and her younger brother Richard was 11.

While bringing up two young children and managing his business, Pattinson found time to play the organ at St Peter’s Church in Kirkcaldy on Sundays.

Pattinson passed on his love of music to Richard, who became a classical musician.

While playing for an orchestra in Switzerland, Richard died in a climbing accident in the Swiss Alps at the age of 25.

Porter, who became a teacher, told OT that as well as being a devoted father and grandfather, Pattinson saw his patients as a second family.

“He knew everything about them – who was having a baby or a grandchild. He remembered these things because he genuinely cared about them,” she said.

Pattinson’s dedication to his job saw him reroute his work phone to his holiday home in France. Porter would be asked to post contact lenses to his patients while he was abroad.

“He was never going to retire. His work was a part of his identity – it was what he loved,” Porter said.

Porter recalls her conversation with her dad following his final clinic in Perth a week before he died.

“He was telling me about what a great day he had had. He had a good laugh with his patients and a good laugh with his colleagues,” she said.

“To get to his age and still be getting a buzz from work – that is a great gift,” Porter observed.

The revenue he earned wasn’t financial – it was goodwill and the satisfaction he found in helping people

Summers on Orkney

Pattinson spent summers working as a contact lens optician at BMClarkOpticians in Orkney between 1985 and 1995.

Optometrist, Graeme Clark, told OT that Pattinson became a trusted family friend as well as a valued colleague while working alongside his late father, optometrist, Bryan Clark.

“Alan had a deep love of music and often timed his annual visits to Orkney to coincide with the St Magnus Festival – a reflection of his appreciation for the arts and the island’s culture,” Clark said.

Clark described Pattinson as someone who was generous with his time and good humour.

“During his time here, we shared many meals around our family table. He was always warm, engaging company,” he said.

“Patients held Alan in high regard, and many of my older patients still speak of him fondly. His care and professionalism left a lasting impression,” Clark highlighted.

Clark shared that he was grateful for the support that Pattinson provided as he took on his father’s practice.

“Alan ensured a seamless transition for patients moving from his care to mine – a gesture I really appreciated,” he said.

“Alan’s legacy is felt not only in the profession he served with dedication but also in the personal connections he made along the way. He will be remembered with respect and affection,” Clark said.

Porter told OT that she treasures her memories of summers spent with her family on Orkney.

“For that reason, I named my son Magnus,” she said.

The patient perspective

Hamilton, who is now severely sight impaired, said that going to see Pattinson always made her feel good.

“He always gave me hope that something could be done,” she said.

“It’s hard for me to think that he is no longer here because he was such a big part of my life,” Hamilton said.

When she first started wearing contact lenses, Graham recalled telling Pattinson she was not sure she would know which lens was which.

“He gave me a contact lens case with a lady bird on one side and the other side was white. He said ‘right is white and left is ladybird’,” she shared.

“He was a very patient man and you were treated as an individual,” Graham said.

When Pattinson closed his Kirkcaldy practice in 2019, McGiffen made the hour-long drive to Perth to seem him at his regular Salmoni Opticians contact lens clinic.

“Going to see Alan was like speaking with your dad. Over the years we bonded and talked about our lives,” he said.

“He will be a very hard act to follow. I felt that when I needed help, that man was there,” McGiffen observed.

Remembering Alan Pattinson

Eleanor Porter

Eleanor Porter

Eleanor Porter

Dispensing optician, Alan Pattinson as a schoolboy, during his time as a student in the 1960s and pictured in 2001

A valued colleague

Optometrist, Eddie Russell, first met Pattinson when he took over Salmoni Opticians in 2006.

Pattinson held regular specialist contact lens clinics at the Perth independent practice.

“He very rarely dealt with run-of-the-mill contact lens issues. He dealt with things that would normally be seen within the hospital,” he said.

“A lot of the time, the hospital eye service would ask him for advice, and not the other way around,” Russell shared.

Russell observed that Pattinson had been seeing some of his patients since the 1970s.

“It is the end of an era in many different ways,” he said.

“I will have been qualified for 30 years next year, and I have never worked within anyone who I had more respect for as a clinician, and more importantly, as a person – in the way he treated these patients and the way he treated my staff,” Russell said.

Queen Margaret Hospital consultant ophthalmologist, Peter Wilson, sent complex contact lens patients to Pattinson.

“It was a testimony to how much his patients liked him and how effective he was that I very rarely needed to see the patients again,” Wilson said.

“Once I passed them into his care, he would take it from there,” he said.

Wilson recalled arranging for Pattinson to run a contact lens clinic for his patients from the hospital during the pandemic.

“It didn’t matter that the world had shut down with COVID, he was going to keep providing contact lens care,” he said.

“In the clinic, he came across as a humble guy. He obviously had a wealth of experience and expertise, but he was just grateful that we had found him some space to keep seeing his patients,” Wilson shared.

Dispensing optician, Roderick Foster, first met Pattinson 38 years ago after moving from Ireland to work at Salmoni Opticians in Perth.

“He was a lovely soul. He would bend over backwards for anybody,” Foster said.

“Alan was very much a family man when he wasn’t working. His family and grandchildren were very important to him,” he said.

Optometrist and practice director, David Cummins, has taken over the care of some of Pattinson’s former contact lens patients at PLM Optometrists in Fife.

“I have been bowled over by how much goodwill he has created in his patients,” he said.

“People have been crying in the testing room. It is as though they lost a member of their family,” Cummins said.

Although Cummins only met Pattinson a handful of times at Fife optical events, he has gained a sense of familiarity with the contact lens optician through his meticulous, handwritten patient records.

“Some of them are like a book with all that he has written over the years. It has been a real education,” he said.

Cummins highlighted that many patients who saw Pattinson were particularly reliant on the care he provided.

“If you have keratoconus, for example, you might not have glasses. Your contact lenses are basically your eyes so it’s really important that you have someone who is on the ball when there are any issues,” he said.

Cummins described Pattinson’s business model as “not particularly business-ey.”

“He worked really hard, saw lots of people and didn’t seem to take that much money,” he said.

“The revenue he earned wasn’t financial – it was goodwill and the satisfaction he found in helping people,” Cummins said.