horse 
 
 
Horse and pony - Equiworld site index.Horse chat message boards.Horse breeds, types and breeding gallery.Search for horse information on Equiworld.Horse information and equestrian news archive.horsehorse  
[Dressage]-[Driving]-[Endurance]-[Horse-Trials]-[Polo]-[Show-Jumping]-[Showing]-[Side-Saddle]-[Vaulting]-[Western]


The remarkable life of an English veterinary surgeon in the last century.
A New Book now available online.

Three Score Years
(prepared for publication) by Mike Berwyn-Jones

To view a description and extract of this, then download it to your PC, pocket PC, laptop, e-book reader etc., please visit: http://00223.nospine.net and click on the title

The memoirs of my father from 1898 to 1958 found after his death in 1968: soldier in two world wars; veterinary surgeon (specialising in equine surgery); pioneer radiographer; horseman; huntsman; farmer; fisherman; and more. Compiled with an introduction and 16 photographs added. In PDF for reading/printing/marking/searching using Adobe Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Ebook Reader freely available from www.adobe.com , www.amazon.com/ebooks/ and many other sites.
It will fascinate lovers of animals, horse racing, fishing, other country pursuits, and life stories.

From his obituary in The Veterinary Record:
One month before he was wounded and gassed during World War I in France at the age of l8½, his CO's report began:
"Victor Berwyn-Jones has done excellent service as a subaltern of a 4.5" Howitzer Battery (D/82 R.F.A.) in France. He is an exceptionally good horseman and won the officers* jumping competition, in good company, at 18th Div. R.A. Sports at Hendicourt in July, 1917."
His love of horses took him to the Royal Veterinary College, London, where he obtained three certificates of merit and was captain of the rugby club for two seasons.
In 1925 he qualified MRCVS, and married Leonora Pasley-Dirom, daughter of the squire of Mount Annan, Dumfries, Scotland. They had four children; the first died when 18 months old, the others are still alive (2002).
At Wonersh, a village in Surrey, England, he built up a large practice on his own account with premises that were exceptional for the times: 20 loose-boxes; 50 kennels; large and small animal operating theatres; clinical laboratory; X-ray rooms; forge; dispensary; harness room; two paddocks, and a lay staff of six.
He was the pioneer among practitioners in veterinary radiology and lectured on this subject at the Glasgow Veterinary Congress of 1938. At that time he was visiting horse studs and training stables throughout Britain in an 8-litre Bentley pulling a horse-trailer equipped with x-ray equipment and developing tanks for on-the-spot diagnosis.
His greatest disappointment was to lose all the material he collected over the years for a complete "Atlas of the Normal Radiographic Anatomy of the Adult Horse". It was bombed out of existence during the blitz while awaiting publication in the publisher's strong room in London.
He contributed over 20 articles to The Veterinary Record and British Veterinary Journal.
He was re-commissioned as a Captain in the second world war, and raised and commanded the 1st Surrey Battalion, Mounted Section (Defence Force).
During that early part of WW2, in addition to practice duties and those of Local Veterinary Inspector for the Ministry of Agriculture, he reclaimed and farmed 75 derelict acres that became a fertile mixed arable farm carrying a Kerry Hill ewe flock and herd of Angus cattle.
"VBJ." won many point-to-point races, and was successful locally and nationally in hunter trials and horse shows with his own animals. He was jointly responsible for the formation of the Chiddingfold Farmers' Hunt, accommodating hounds and hunt staff on his own premises, and hunting them himself until 1946.
Having exhausted his reserves, he sold his practice after the war to take charge of the Horse Department, northern territory, British Railways, with 3,000 horses, ancillary staffs, mills and depots in his care. Mechanization gradually obliterated the stud.
With some relief, for his heart belonged to the countryside, he retired to the banks of the River Wye in Wales where he wrote, painted in oils, sculpted, and fished for salmon and trout, making his own rods, flies and baits, and writing expert articles for The Field, Trout and Salmon, and other periodicals.
He died on 9th June 1968, leaving a widow, one son, two daughters and seven grandchildren.



.



Find out more, visit the links page or find answers on the message board.

 
horse


Copyright 1994 to 2024 Equiworld at Hayfield, Aberdeen, Scotland - 30 years on the web. Archived Version.