Page 319 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
horses for all his seventeen-year Army career and transferred from the Life Guards to the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in 1963: “I shall complete my Army service here,” he told Soldier Magazine. “There is not much opportunity for farriers to serve elsewhere – we have one in Aldershot and one in Hong Kong with the mule pack. But we do a bit of demonstrating and take part in shoeing competitions in this country and Germany.”
The Army farriers have a conspicuous success record in their battles with their civilian counterparts. Their training is long and thorough – four months up to B3 standard followed by two years to B2 which entitles them to be registered as shoeing smiths. These days, many readymade shoes are supplied which merely have to be altered to fit a particular horse but every Army farrier has to be able to make his own shoes from raw metal.
At any one time the five farriery instructors have two Royal Army Veterinary Corps trainees learning the job as well as running a course for eight students from other Army units. Any unit using horses has to change their shoes frequently – certainly every six weeks and with a hard-wearing horse on road work the time can be as little as ten days.
Out at Melton Mowbray the atmosphere is friendly and decidedly bucolic. But the work with animals being carried out there is still important in today’s Army – even though the days of Cavalry charges have long gone. Vehicles come and go but the horse remains and the dog is yet again proving his worth in today’s grim confron- tations in Northern Ireland.23
The revised Q Brief for the RAVC Centre, incorporating HQ DAVRS, RAVC School and Stores and the RAVC Training Centre, was by this time reaching its ‘final ‘paper stages. The main outstanding problem was the allocations of monies but some expressed hope in: “... this no doubt will be resolved in the next decade!”
The Veterinary Hospital had been carrying out drug trials with Small Animal Immobilon and they gained useful results – as was demonstrated with success at the Directors Study day that March. Equine reported being very busy, with the Long Equitation course and six week Pack Transport and Animal Management course, to be followed by the usual advanced Saddle Club course.
ADTS reported that the gentlemen of the Tactical Dog Troop came back to the fold and were hard at work with the rest of ADTS. Cpls Johnny Worne and Ginge Thornton had been helping Sgt Malvern in Northern Ireland and now Cpl Clive
23 Soldier Magazine dated November 1974.
24 Chiron Calling Issue No 6 dated December 1975.
Lewis had joined them. The demands of Northern Ireland had resulted in five extra handlers’ courses so far, with a corresponding increase in the requirement of trained dogs.
Trained dogs working in the Dog Display team were also in high demand, and that included TV appearances and the local press. Comments from senior dog trainers in Germany and the UK were complimentary of the volunteers, which was only right as the displays were popular with the public and no doubt the best kind of PR for the Corps. One positive response from the public was an increase in the number of gift dogs being accepted; proof the effort was worthwhile.
Notes from 1974 outline some interesting facts of the day, for instance the price of petrol at just a mere 55p a gallon (not a litre!). Further sparse notes from the now familiar duplicated light green coloured Chiron Calling in 1975, outlined the RSM and WO2 Roy Kettle who went to Scotland to scour the area for Pack Transport Training areas. A Cpls’ Mess was formed in the old beer bar of the NAAFI. The RAVC Association Dinner, held in Melton, with the AGM in the Amenities Centre, saw the largest attendance ever – thought to be due to the bar, being the only one open for business on Camp. The Dinner held in London in 1974 sat seventy-seven and in 1975 in Melton one hundred and fifty were dined, with fourteen coming from the Doncaster Branch. It was hoped in 1976 that two hundred would be seated.
1975... The ADTS reported the provision of vid- eo equipment, so that students could be shown their own mistakes – for their own good. Given the on-going staff shortages at the School it was hoped more manpower could be released for ac- tual dog training. At the time of writing over three hundred and eighty dogs had been taken on ap- proval and two hundred and sixty had been ac- cepted, with another ninety needed to reach the target for training. Three JNCOs were called out with their AES dogs to search the QE2, and the Christmas party was being planned: ‘... the big- gest ever with over £200 already spent on food and booze’.24
The next light notes mentioned the near completion of the accommodation refurb and the WRAC ‘officially’ moving into B Block. The Dog School reported that, at long last, there had been movement on the kennel resurfacing and also many numbers of surveyors and architects
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