Veterinary Surgeon

Information relating to Veterinary Surgeons.

An advice from Fort William dated April 12, 1827 advised that following the decision to appoint regularly educated Veterinary Surgeons, Sub -assistant Veterinary Surgeons were to be given the choice of taking their discharge, or of entering the subordinate branch of the medical staff.

Records

Veterinary Surgeons were initially (and at least until the 1860s and probably the 1880s) part of the Presidency Medical Departments, which became the Indian Medical Service and which in turn was part of the Army structure. Most listings of Surgeons and Assistant Surgeons will contain a list of Veterinary Surgeons at the end.

The British Library page on the Indian Medical Service gives details of records.

Veterinary Surgeons of the Governor-General’s Bodyguard, page 296, Historical records of the Governor-General's Body Guard by Vernon Charles Paget Hodson 1910 Archive.org

Training

• The Madras Veterinary Establishment was set up in 1810 and boys from the Military Male Asylum and the Charity School were to be trained in the veterinary art, with the eventual rank of farriers.
• British Library catalogue entry IOR/F/4/738/20145 May 1796-Nov 1822 Further papers regarding the training establishment for veterinary students at Baliganj, [Ballygunge] Calcutta
• British Library catalogue entry IOR/F/4/661/18358 Mar 1821, in respect of Bengal: Appointment of J.T. Hodgson as Veterinary Surgeon to the Governor General's Body Guard - he is to select and train eight Assistant Apothecaries as Veterinary Surgeons for the Light Cavalry Regiments. Refer Apothecary - Duties.
  • Appointment of Veterinary Surgeon Mr Hodgson who is to train Assistant Apothecaries page 87 Historical records of the Governor-General's Body Guard by Vernon Charles Paget Hodson 1910 Archive.org
• British Library catalogue entry IOR/F/4/889/23120 Further papers regarding the veterinary training establishment at Baliganj [Ballygunge] (includes returns of students on 1 Jul 1823, and 1 Jan 1824, pp 12-13, 85-86)
• Page 3 of "History and Scope of Veterinary Medicine" (pdf) by MA Samad and MU Ahmed talks about the history of Veterinary Medicine in the Indian Sub- continent. It advises an Army Veterinary School was established at Poona in 1862, The first Veterinary College was set up at Babugarh in 1877, followed by Lahore in 1882, Bombay in 1886, and Madras and Calcutta in 1893
• Bombay Veterinary College was established 2 August 1886 according to this MAFSU(Maharashtra Animal and Fishery Sciences University) link. It also contains a paragraph about William Moorcroft in addition to historical information.
• The Madras Veterinary College TANUVAS

Individuals

William Moorcroft

William Moorcroft (Wikipedia) was the first English Veterinary Surgeon at Pusa. In describing the book Beyond Bokhara: The Life of William Moorcroft, Asian Explorer and Pioneer Veterinary Surgeon 1767-1825 by Garry Alder (1985), Bill Buxton states on his exploration website:

"This is the only biography of William Moorcroft, one of the great early explorers of the region north west of India. He was a veterinarian who came to India in 1808 as Superintendent of East India Company's horses. He traveled widely, ostensibly in search of breeding stock, but this was clearly more of a pretext than fact. He undertook a journey into western Tibet in 1812, across the Garhwal Himalaya to Lake Manasarowar, Mount Kailas region, the Rakas Tal, and Gartok. Moorcroft and Hearsey were the first Englishmen in the area.
"His next major trip was to Bokhara. He left British territory in 1820, for a trip that would last until 1825. Due to civil unrest in Afghanistan, he decided to go via Ladakh and Chinese Turkistan. He waited in Leh for permission from Kashgar, during which time he traveled and explored the greater part of Ladakh, the Karakoram Pass, the head-waters of the Yarkand River, the Western Himalaya, the Karakoram and the NW Frontier. In 1824, after deciding that permission would never come , he decided to go via Afghanistan, regardless of the civil conflict there. Traveled through Kashmir and Punjab, over the Khyber Pass, across the Oxus, and got to Bokhara. He died during the return trip."

Elsewhere on his site, Buxton gives a short, but fuller biography of Moorcroft, including a bibliography.

• Extract about William Moorcroft "The Horse Doctor" from the book Tournament of Shadows by Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac 1999. ls2content.tlcdelivers.com
• "William Moorcroft’s Commercial Pilgrimage to Manasa Sarowara in 1812" by PJ Marczell, page 161 Recent Research on Ladakh 6: Proceedings of the Sixth International Colloquium on Ladakh, Leh 1993. Preview Google Books. pdf version adakhstudies.org
• The Outsider by Sepoy June 15, 2007 www.chapatimystery.com
• William Moorcroft and the Journey of the Kashmir Shawl to Europe by Zuhier Qureshion February 9, 2013 kashmircompany.com

Historical books available online include

• Travels in the Himalayan provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz, and Bokhara from 1819 to 1825 by William Moorcroft and George Trebeck Volume 1, Volume 2 (Google Books).
• "Across Afghanistan to Bokhara-Moorcroft" page 442 The Gates of India, being an Historical Narrative by Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich 1910 Archive.org

Others

• Listen to the 1977 interview with John Clabby, British officer served with Royal Army Veterinary Corps in India, 1933- 1947. Imperial War Museums. Interview 937.

External links

• Development of Veterinary Work In India Informative short article held on website of the Indian Academy of Sciences. The article outlines the history of veterinary work in India from 1799 up to the 1930s and mentions the men who played a major role in its expansion.
• An Army Veterinary Department was established in 1884 (a very brief mention in The Tribune India Online). A Civil Veterinary Department was established from 1889. It seems that it was the Civil Veterinary Department that later became known as the Indian Veterinary Service or I.V.S. In 1923 a Commission into the Civil Services decided that there would be no further recruitment into the IVS and that in future the provincial governments would control and make appointments Pratiyogita Darpan/January 2007/1150 Google Books
• South Asia Archive & Library Group host a Powerpoint presentation given at their conference by Christopher Gill called "Veterinary Material in the National Library of Scotland’s India Papers Collection - A previously neglected resource for historical research".
• Army Remount Corps indiapicks.com
• "Thomas Hagger An Indian Army Veterinary Surgeon in Australia" by John Fisher commences page 5 of this Australian Veterinary History Society 1995 Newsletter pdf and mentions the trade in Australian horses to India c early 1840's.
• The Indian Veterinary Research Institute was established in 1889 as the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory.
• The Library of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons [UK] is located at Belgravia House, 62- 64 Horseferry Road, London SW1P 2AF. If you are unable to visit, the Library will carry out genealogical research on your behalf, for a fee. (retrieved 7 June 2014)

Historical books online

• Veterinary books online from the National Library of Scotland’s website Medical History of British India (India Papers collection)
• A manual of the diseases of the elephant and of his management and uses by John Henry Steel 1885 Archive.org
• A manual of the diseases of the camel and of his management and uses by John Henry Steel 1890 Archive.org
• Elephants and their diseases. A treatise on elephants by Lieut.-Colonel GH Evans , Superintendent, Civil Veterinary Department, Burma 1910 Archive.org