Page 112 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
Royal Army Veterinary Corps Museum27
This specialised museum is designed to reflect the development of veterinary science in the British Army. The story begins in 1796 with the creation of the Army Veterinary Service to combat the enormous losses incurred in the Army’s equine strength through disease and other causes. From that day on the health of the horse, then the primary motive power of the Army, steadily improved, and to demonstrate it a wide range of exhibits trace the evolution of techniques in animal care and welfare.
In 1883 the veterinary services, until then organised on a regimental basis, became the Army Veterinary Department with its own Direc- tor-General and School. A large wall plaque in the museum lists the names of Commandants of the ‘School’ from its early days in a cottage in rural Aldershot to the present, well-equipped estab- lishment with its laboratory and operating theatre. By 1903 the Department had achieved Corps status and in November 1918, in recognition of its work in World War One, King George V conferred on it the title “Royal”.
Setting the scene in the larger of the museum’s two rooms is a wooden horse, black and forbidding, on which generations of Cavalry recruits had their first “rides”. A leather hoof boot for use after surgery, an equine anti-gas respirator, early examples of a balling gun (used for the adminis- tration of horse pills) and a drenching horn for liquid medicine, a German pneumatic horse collar, and a stomach pump – all typical of several items illustrating animal care in the horse era.
A different exhibit is an example of the centu- ries-old anti-Cavalry device known as a caltrop. Quantities of this contrivance, designed so that one of its four four-inch spikes always stood up-right, would be scattered before an impending charge, and it is not difficult to imagine the chaos and disarray that followed when horse and rider thundered on to this precursor of the minefield.
Featured in the museum are several solidly constructed models which include a closed horse-drawn equine ambulance, a large-scale model of a First World War hospital, showing the dipping section, an Operating Theatre in a veterinary hospital and examples of stabling.
With the advent of mechanisation and the virtual disappearance of the Army horse, the Corps assumed responsibility for developing the use of the Army dog and its proud boast that if a dog is needed in any military role, then the RAVC will produce the required animal. Exhibits
included a British “Mark I” anti-gas respirator, a Red Cross dog harness complete with First-Aid pack, a Despatch Dogs’ collar with it a pouch for the messages and the skeleton of an Alsatian. There was also a reminder of the RAVC’s interest in animals other than horses, mules and dogs in the shape of a primitive pair of shears which were used during a serious outbreak of mange in Egypt and Palestine in 1916 – 18.
Several displays included items such as veterinary operating instruments and humane killers, a selection of field dressings, a collection of tribal horse bits from the North-West Frontier, and an array of jars containing pickled medical specimens.
On the human side, there is a case full of uniforms (circa 1879) and three Cavalry swords, a saddler’s shop with the tools of his trade set out on a workbench, and a small collection of medals and insignia, including badges and buttons from British and Commonwealth veterinary services.
The museum became very popular with staff from the Imperial War Museum, especially during the early 1980s when they were trawling for artefacts to display in the ‘Animals in War Exhibition’ which launched in May 1983 and ran for several months. The Corps’ involvement in both World Wars and the courage of its members – both human and animal – featured heavily in the exhibition and worked well as an awareness vehicle with the public.
The 1980s
The duplicated Chiron Calling ‘tongue in cheek’ comments over the years have, more than anything, mentioned the comings and goings of personnel in the RAVC Laboratory and Stores. However, in 1980, no opportunity was wasted to point out that it was the 100th anniversary of Fitzwygram House, which opened for business on 3rd June 1880. The building remained one of the few Victorian military buildings of that era still being used for its original purpose – the details of which are re-visited later in this chapter.
The Corps’ links with Aldershot made the significant moves made in the 1980s very poignant, such as when HQ AVRS moved from Ministry of Defence (AVR), Government Buildings, Worcester Road, Droitwich to Fitzwygram House in Aldershot on 5th May 1987. The timing was apt as 1987 was the year that the Army Remount Department was also celebrating its Centenary and Aldershot had a strong claim to being the spiritual home of the RAVC.
27 Soldier Magazine dated June 1975.
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