This month marks the 75th anniversary of ‘Operation Compass’ which took place in the North African desert, in western Egypt during World War 2. It was here, on 11 December 1940, that a member of the veterinary profession was recognised for gallantry of the highest order. Dr Thomas Somerville was born in March 1887 in […]
In June this year, RCVS Knowledge were thrilled to announce that the Alborada Trust had provided funding for a five year project to catalogue, preserve and digitise the Historic Collection and Archive of the Royal College. Now, five months later, it is time to update you with the progress that has been made so far! […]
In the Historical Collection there are numerous bound volumes that simply say ‘Pamphlets various’ on the spine. They don’t look that interesting but I always have a sense of anticipation when opening one for the first time as they usually contain an eclectic mix of material – prospectuses for vet schools, unpublished correspondence, reprints on […]
In our collection of watercolours by Edward Mayhew there is only one featuring dogs. The top image is captioned ‘Dog with retracted eye – near the termination(?) of distemper’ and the bottom ‘The lasting effect left by nitrate of silver when applied to an ulcer on the eye of the dog.’ The fact that there […]
At our recent Summer Reception, guest speaker Kirsten Rausing announced £387,275 in funding from The ALBORADA Trust for a five year project to catalogue, properly store and digitise priority pieces from our historic collections and make them available for free online. Amongst the documents we plan to digitise is a manuscript ledger recording the work […]
The addition of the Coat of Arms of the University of Nottingham to the display of stained glass in the reception at Belgravia House, the RCVS HQ, has awakened interest in the history of the glass in this display and elsewhere in the building. As a result I spent several days pouring over 170 years of […]
In 1898 Robert Stordy, who was working for the Colonial Veterinary Service in British East Africa, embarked on a 400 mile journey from Nairobi to Kampala. This journey was the first made by the Uganda Transport which had been set up to convey the effects, equipment and rations of troops serving in Uganda. Stordy wrote […]
Sitting proudly on top of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square currently is ‘Gift Horse’ by Hans Haacke. The sculpture is based on illustrations from George Stubb’s Anatomy of the horse and so feels strangely familiar to me – apart from the live share-price ticker tied to its foreleg. Looking at our catalogue I […]
The Lightbox in Woking, is currently showing an exhibition describing the role of horse and mules in World War 1. The Horse at War: 1914-18 has a wide ranging display of artwork both from the war itself as well as more recent works, most noticeably ‘Joey’ the life size puppet from the National Theatre’s stage production […]
In 1859 George Fleming volunteered to serve as a veterinary officer on the expedition to North China. Whilst there, in July 1861, he embarked on a journey of almost 700 miles from Tien-tsin, where he was stationed, to Mantchu Tartary. Two years later he wrote an account of the journey which was published as Travels on horseback […]
Connect with Us