After qualification, Harold Frazer Lake worked as a junior doctor at various hospitals in the Northern region interspersed with two years’ national service in the army (1948-50). He continued to serve in the army as a major in the Royal Army Medical Corps (Territorial Army) from 1951 to 1965. He began his ophthalmological career at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle, later becoming a senior registrar at Wolverhampton and Birmingham. In October 1961 he was appointed consultant ophthalmologist to Sunderland and South Shields Hospital Groups and served those communities until May 1982 based at Sunderland Eye Infirmary.
He developed a special interest in contact lens practice.
Sunderland Eye Infirmary hosted the first ever meeting of the North of England Ophthalmological Society under his guidance in April 1981. He was president of the society in 1985.
After retirement from the National Health Service in 1982, Harold spent three years as sole ophthalmologist to the Sa’ada Province and Northern Territories (population 1 million) at Al-Salam Hospital, Sa’ada, in the Yemen Arab Republic.
Former consultant ophthalmic surgeon Sunderland Eye Infirmary (b 1924; q Durham 1947; DO, FRCOphth), died from cancer of the prostate on 31 March 2007.