GOWLLAND FAMILY WEB-SITE

The third child, and second son, of George and Jane Gowlland, born at 31 Ashburton Grove in East Islington on 7th February 1865 - click here for the certificate..  He was educated at Highbury Wesleyan School.   

He went to work at Henry Crouch with his father. He became their [lens] computer and later went to Ross's where he was taught more advanced computing by a Dr Schrödinger.  He specialised in oil-immersed microscope objectives, and became a foreman.  Ross's was then at North Side, Clapham Common, where they were still located in the 1940s. 

Mary Ann Gowlland, formerly Brown, nee Holder  -  about 1900

One of Mrs Brown's children was a daughter, Gertrude (half-sister to Gladys and George), who died in Canada at 86 years of age: she was married to Peter John Riber Mathieson, for whose biography click here.

He lived for a while at "The Poplars", just north of the centre of Selsea, Sussex. Then at "The Elms", Sidlesham Common, and finally, for rather longer, at "The Homestead".  His father George worked with him at "The Poplars".  The red brick annexe was still there in 1955.  At "The Homestead", lens work was done in the brick coach house. 

Click here for details of the above microscope, and here for details of the above oil immersion objective, both made by him around the turn of the century.  [Both these were bought on eBay - the former from Wales, and the latter from Canada].

He invented and patented special types of grinding and polishing machines for [illegible] and was an early manufacturer of multi-focal lenses.  [For a summary of his six patents click here, and for details of the most important three, click here, here or here].  For a present-day opinion on his work, click here and go to Darryl Meister's posting.  Also for a mention in Reference.com, click here  -  note that this article implies that Henry was responsible only for the marketing, whereas we believe he was either responsible for, or involved in, the actual manufacture:  Duke Elder went on to write or co-author several papers on optical subjects.

His role in the development of varifocal lenses is largely forgotten in the UK but, as the extract below from a Spanish language article of 2001 makes clear, his name is not forgotten overseas. 

l

It was in a Venezuelan journal that this article was first located, but in November 2007 Professor José Alonso of the University Computense in Madrid, Spain, very kindly wrote as follows:

The translation of the relevant first two paragraphs are as follows:-

A "progressive" lens is a multifocus single lens especially configured so as to compensate for the effects of presbyopia [the loss of accommodation between distant and close vision which occurs in ageing adults as a result of loss of elasticity of the ocular lens] in which the power of the lens varies smoothly between that required for long vision and that required for reading, as indicated in figures 14.1. [The column of numbers on the left indicates the positive dioptric power of the lens as it increases the further the sightline moves away from the axis].

The first such progressive lens recorded is found in the 1907 patent of Owen Aves, in England.  He manufactured some prototypes, but the available technology was very rudimentary and the design correspondingly inadequate, for which reason he failed to bring them into production.  A little later, in 1914, Gowlland patented what proved to be the first progressive lens to be produced commercially, albeit without success.  There were most attempts; but it was not until 1951 when Maitenaz began the development of what became the first acceptable progressive lens, the "Varilux 1".

He wrote two books under the name of Henry Orford, "Modern optical instruments" and "Lens work for amateurs".  [The former went through many editions, and was still in print in the 1980s: both of these books can still be found through second-hand dealers.  Gladys Gowlland in her war-time correspondence with Geoffrey Gowlland thanked him for having obtained for her a second-hand copy of the former book, and gave him some information about Gertrude's having written the manuscript out for her father by hand when living at Selsea - click here for the details].

By his wife he had two children, George (1894 - click here for his birth certificate) and Gladys (1896).  In the 1901 census (click here) he is shown living in Selsey with his wife and these two children, and four of his step-children, Gertrude (23), Lilian (17), Clarence (14) and Herbert (13).  Interestingly on that census return he gives his age as 46, whereas in fact he was only 36 - a mere thirteen years older than his oldest step-daughter.  And, by way of another discrepancy, he shows his place of birth as "Llandudno, Wales": all other records, and especially his birth certificate, indicate his birthplace as Highbury, Islington, London.

He had taken to making 1/12th immersion objectives for microscopes on his own account, but a dispute arose over trade names (it was alleged that he marked his own products with the names of far better known and more prestigious manufacturers), and he went several times to North America, with his wife and Gertrude, finally settling there in the early 1900s.    He was still based in Selsey when, on 17th November 1906, the "British Medical Journal" carried a brief article relating to his oil-immersion lenses - for an extract click here.

We have a record of his landing alone in New York in 1895 (here), destined for Philadelphia and accompanied by three pieces of baggage, on the SS "Paris" (here), having travelled in Steerage Class. 

We also have a later sailing on SS "New England", arriving in Boston on 28th May 1903 (click here) where his name is wrongly spelt as "Gowland".  He is described, on arrival in Boston, in the List or Manifest of Aliens, as "Henry Gowland - 37 - Male - Married - Optician - able to read and write - last residence Chichester - final destination illegible (possibly New York) - possessing not less than $30 -  last visit to USA to Philadelphia two years before - not residing with a relative in the US".   The corresponding entry (click here), earlier prepared on embarkation, is more fanciful, recording his occupation as "farmer", the marital status as "single" and the age simply as "a" - presumably errors by the clerk, or perhaps disinformation on Henry's part.  We have a later record in the name of Gawland (see "Loose Ends") and possibly therefore this entry, whose spelling is uncertain, may relate to the same person, not Henry Orford Gowlland.

An even more intriguing record from 1909  (click here), shows an arrival at Plymouth from New York  of "Harry Gowlland - adult, single or not accompanied by wife -  clerk" and "George Gowlland - adult, single or not accompanied by wife- labourer" .  Was this our Henry?  If so, is his companion either his father or his brother?  One remembers Egbert Gowlland reporting that in 1912 Henry and George had evidently quarrelled.

There is a further record of his landing on 15th June 1910 on the SS "Royal Edward".

Gladys (aged seven) arrived on 16th July 1908 also on the SS "Royal Edward", and then Mary (aged fifty) and Gladys (aged fourteen) arriving on 7th September 1910, also on the SS "Royal Edward".   Evidently one or other age shown for Gladys is incorrect.  Gladys, confusingly, was born in the United States. 

There is a record (click here) of the 1906 arrival in Quebec of a "Miss M Gowlland  -  age 30  -  single  -  male  -  grocer".    An age of thirty implies a birth year of 1876.  The passenger (occupation “grocer – unmarried”) is described as both “Miss” and “Male” – one or other must be wrong.  This might be Gertrude, Henry Orford Gowlland’s oldest step-daughter, who we know was born in about 1876. 

Also we have a record (click here) of his son George Orford, aged seventeen, leaving Bristol for Quebec on 7th July 1910 on the SS "Royal Edward"

Henry Orford Gowlland  -  about 1900

In 1915 he formed in Canada "The Gowlland Optical Company Limited"  -  details from the Canadian Archives in Ottawa can be seen by clicking here.

In Canada he worked for Magill University and was appointed their instrument maker.  The business he built up was bought by the American Optical Co. and subsequently became the famous Spencer Lens Co.  In June 2007 a microscope objective (see below) bearing his name appeared on eBay and was bought by John Gowlland. The vendor explained:-

I will certainly keep an eye out for anything else Gowlland, but acquiring that objective was a one time event.  In the 1980s I was a professor in the Microbiology and Immunology Dep't. at McGill University in Montreal.  An old technician had just retired and the new one was throwing out all the parts from older microscopes-a whole drawer-full, which I rescued from the dust-bin. In the 19th and 20th centuries McGill had many close ties with the large British med. schools, and I suspect that is how the lens ended up over here.

In the 1920's his son George was ill with tubercular glands and his parents were advised to take him for a cure in the Laurentian Mountains in Easter Canada.  Henry built a house, dammed a river to create a lake, and built a model factory, equipped for making multi-focal lenses – a pet project of his. 

He died in 1928. 

Illustrated below are Henry's son George and George's wife Muriel née Huckle  in later life.

George Gowlland - about 1930                                                             Muriel Gowlland née Huckle - about 1950

British Medical Journal 17th November 1906