Sir Harold is recognised
Bob Haggerty outside the entrance to Little Lebanon in Kibworth where the famous scientist Sir Harold Ridley was born. (Picture: Andrew Carpenter/001382-46)
A SURGEON who was to change the way more than 200 million people would see is to be recognised at his birthplace in Kibworth.
A plaque in recognition of Sir Harold Ridley is to be put up on the house in which he was born in 1906 – Little Lebanon at 70 Leicester Road, Kibworth.
In 1949 Sir Harold became the first man to successfully implant an artificial lens in an eye – an operation still carried out today to cure cataracts.
The project to see Sir Harold recognised in Kibworth was started by villager Bob Haggerty, who discovered the story of Sir Harold after undergoing a cataract operation earlier this year.
Mr Haggerty said: “I underwent a standard cataract hospital procedure. It took less than 20 minutes and I did not feel a thing.
“That this was an eye-opening experience became obvious a mere five days later when it dawned on me that I’d been looking at the world for years through an ever thickening and darkening fog.
“I now realised that this shroud was steadily dispersing each day to reveal ever more of the intricate detailing and wondrous colours of nature.
“This marvellous transformation of my life prompted me to know more of the genius who had revitalised my eyes.”
Mr Haggerty was so grateful to Sir Harold, who died in 2001 a year after being knighted, that he started to campaign to have a plaque placed at his Kibworth birthplace.
After gaining the permission of the home’s present owners, the plaque will now be put up.
It is to be unveiled by Sir Harold’s son, Nicholas Ridley, on Saturday, February 18.
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Tuesday 22 May 2012
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