John Baptiste Reiner
No. 9 Vere Street, London
The story of the Rayner Company begins in 1910, when Mr John Baptiste Reiner and Mr Charles Davis Keeler opened their first optician’s shop at No 9, Vere Street, London, England.
They registered their company as Reiner & Keeler Ltd on the 28th September 1910. Before forming the company, J.B. Reiner had completed an apprenticeship in ‘the art of an optician and scientific instrument maker’ in 1891 and had gone on to work for E.B. Meyrowitz, a branch of a well known American optical company.
In 1915, during the First World War, the company name was changed to Rayner & Keeler Ltd. This was almost certainly a commercial decision of the time as J.B. Reiner retained his name all his life. The two founding directors separated in 1917 when C.D. Keeler resigned and severed all his interests with the Company.
