The seventh Lord Crook Gold Medal was presented by the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, Alderman David Howard, to Professor John Marshall of the Rayne Institute, St Thomas' Hospital, during the annual Livery Dinner of the Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers, which was held in the Mansion House on Tuesday February 20th 2001.

The award recognised Professor Marshall's pioneering work with the utilisation of laser light in the diagnosis and treatment of ocular conditions.

The Medal perpetuates the memory of Reginald Douglas Crook, later the Right Honourable the Lord Crook of Carshalton, the Labour politician who chaired the inter-departmental committee on the statutory registration of opticians which sat from 1949 to 1952, and which submitted the report which led to the establishment of the General Optical Council in 1958.

He was Master of the Spectacle Makers' Company from 1963 to 1965.

The medal is awarded in recognition of "outstanding contributions to the understanding or improvement of vision".