Burying a horse at sea

All aboard the SS Templemore

‘We embarked on Friday 10th November, but owing to bad weather did not leave L/pool [Liverpool] until 12.30 noon on 12th November’ so reads an entry in a small notebook which is part of one of the treasures of our archives – the Sir Frederick Smith Collection. Smith sailed for South Africa  on the 12 November 1899 with […]

Slaughterhouses in the Tropics

One of our ongoing library projects is to catalogue the RCVS Fellowship Theses.  The collection spans approximately 120 years and fills more than 20 metres! An interesting thesis, by A. Blake, Chief Veterinary Officer in the Rangoon Municipality, Burma, is entitled ‘The management of slaughter-houses in the East’ and was submitted around 1910.  He draws on ten […]

National Libraries Day logo

Behind the scenes at the Library

Library staff are busy planning an open day on Friday 3rd February from 10.30 am – 4 pm as part of  National Libraries Day (which is on Saturday 4th February). As well as giving all those who come to visit us drinks and nibbles, we will be offering you the chance to have a behind the […]

Entry for July 1916 from The story of Romsey Remount Depot

Your horse belongs to the army now – part two

In the second instalment of our two part post on army horses in the First World War we will take a look at the scale of the operations of the Army Remount Service and in particular the work of the Romsey Remount Depot. The  acquisition of horses for the war effort was an enormous operation.  In his […]

Selection of reports from Egypt on cattle plague

Cattle plague in the colonies

It has recently been announced that the Wellcome Trust funded project to digitise the veterinary medicine reports that form part of the National Library of Scotland’s India papers collection has been added to the Medical History of British India website.  The veterinary collection, which covers the  period 1864-1959, contains important material on research into diseases such […]

Paintings on display as part of the war horse exhibition

Your horse belongs to the army now – part one

The popularity of Michael Morpurgo’s book War Horse, the success of the stage adaptation and now the release of Steven Spielberg’s film has brought the role horses played in the First World War to the public’s attention. Joey, the main ‘character’ of War Horse, belongs to Albert, the young son of a farmer.  He is […]