Chevalier Taylor--Ophthalmiater Royal (1703-1772)

John Taylor was surgeon-oculist to King George II, and claimed to be Ophthalmiater Royal to the Pope and to the Emperor, along with a multitude of royalties, including a mythical Princess of Georgia and the Viceroy of the Indies. He was the first and last ophthalmologist to travel from court to court of Europe with a cavalcade of outriders and supporters; and although he was caricatured as a mountebank, there was an element of genius about him, and his innovations, especially in squint surgery, demand that he should not be forgotten.