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 […]
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 […]
At 11pm on 4th August 1914 Britain declared war on Germany. That same evening at the Natural History Museum 300 guests were gathered for the conversazione and reception of the 10th International Veterinary Congress. A Congress that had been many years in the planning …. London had been chosen as the venue for the 10th […]
Readers of this blog with an interest in veterinary history might like to know about the 41st Congress of the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine, hosted by the Veterinary History Society at Imperial College, London from 10-13 September 2014. This event, which is being held in Britain for the first time, will welcome speakers from […]
This year National Pet Month runs from 1 April- 6 May. As their web site says they are on a mission to: help promote responsible pet ownership across the UK highlight the important work of pet care professionals and working companion animals raise money for the nation’s pet care charities As a library we have […]
This Sunday, we will be watching, with baited breath, to see if the Queen takes her corgis aboard the Royal Barge, the Spirit of Chartwell, to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee with her. Well, perhaps not, but in Britain the Pembroke Welsh corgi immediately evokes images of Queen Elizabeth II, walking her adored pets through the […]
May is local and community history month so that, together with a rather nice photograph from 1913 that was included in the material we received from Fegans (see the previous post), has led to me writing about one of the places I go to eat lunch – St John’s Gardens on Horseferry Road. The garden started […]
Today we are celebrating the 100th birthday of 62-64 Horseferry Road, the current home of the RCVS. The plaque on the corner of the building records the laying of the foundation stone like this: “Mr Fegan’s Homes” (incorporated) to the glory of God and the welfare of orphan, needy and erring boys, here and hereafter, […]
The final instalment of Julie Hipperson’s piece to mark International Women’s Day. The last post looked at how in its early days the SWVS was conflicted about adopting whole-sale the notion of equal pay for equal work based on their physical ability to do the job, an ambiguity beautifully encapsulated in an interview held with […]
Part one of two guest blog posts from Julie Hipperson, PhD student at Imperial College London. In February 1943, the Council of the SWVS were not surprised when their attention was alerted to the fact that the Veterinary Record was carrying adverts which offered different salaries for men and women. The issue of equal pay […]
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