Carl Heinrick Ferdinand Werner
Carl Heinrick Ferdinand Werner
Date of Birth 21 August 1861
Place of Residence Melbourne Victoria Australia
Spouses Name Margaret Lonie
Childrens Names Fred, Leslie Roy, Max & Trina

Carl Heinrick Ferdinand Werner was born in Heide, Denmark, on 21 August 1861, the son of Fritz Werner. He came to Australia in 1870 to live with an uncle in Ballarat, Victoria. Carl Werner and Henry Carter started business as jewellers, opticians and importers of optical instruments in Ballarat. In 1888 Carl married Margaret Lonie who was born in Victoria in 1865. They had four children: Fred, born 1889; Roy, 1891; Max, 1893 and Trina, 1900.

Carter and Werner opened branches in Launceston and Hobart and won two gold medals and one silver medal at the Tasmanian Exhibition in 1891-92.

Carl Werner went to London in 1896 to further his studies in optometry. He was one of Australia's earliest optometrists. He died in Melbourne at the age of sixty in 1922. His three sons were also prominent optometrists in Melbourne.

(See profile of the Werner Family by Wolfgang H Gartner in Clinical and Experimental Optometry 91, 4 July 2008. Available online.)

Prue McCausland Jul 2010