Page 321 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
Every dog has its day. And nearly forty of them had theirs en masse when they – and their masters and mistresses – were granted the Freedom of Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire.
All are members of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps which made its home in the town in 1946. To mark the close ties that have built up between the Corps and local inhabitants, the town council decided to honour its military neighbours by making them Freemen.
There, for the ceremonial parade, were some of the Corps’ Alsatian dogs and their male handlers plus Labradors with their female handlers and a troop of male and female Corps’ members on horseback.
As the orders rang out on the parade field, they were punctured by a few mutinous barks of protest from the immaculately groomed dogs – intent on undoing all their handlers’ hard work by rolling around ecstatically on the turf.
But the sense of occasion soon impressed itself on the animals and they responded in true military fashion to choruses of ‘sit’ or ‘lie down’ from their bands of handlers, translating the human orders of ‘at ease’ and ‘stand easy’ for their charges to understand.
The parade was duly inspected by the Mayor of Melton, Councillor D Smart, who stopped to shake paws with a dog on the way. Next to the dog he admired the gleaming mounts – who had the horse-sense to forgive him for being a wholesale meat trader by profession.
The Army and its animals have been associated with Melton since 1903. It was then that the Army Remount Services bought a stud farm. A veterinary officer of the then Army Veterinary Corps (it became ‘Royal’ in 1918) was always a member of staff.
In 1936 the present headquarters camp was built and was used by airborne troops before their departure for Arnhem during World War Two.
Meanwhile, the RAVC had developed its headquarters at Woolwich. But, in 1942 this was severely damaged in the bombing and the Depot evacuated to Doncaster racecourse as a temporary home. At the same time, the RAVC assumed responsibility for Army Remount Services and so became associated with Melton. Then in 1946 the Corps’ Depot moved from Doncaster to its present home in Welby Lane, Melton Mowbray.
The Mayor presented the Freedom scroll to the Corps’ Colonel Commandant, Major-General Peter Leng and, finally, the Corps’ members – animal and human – marched off through the town to exercise their newly
won right to do so ‘with swords drawn, bayonets fixed, drums beating, bands playing, Colours flying’... dogs barking and horses trotting.27
1978... Equine reported on the eighteen-horse contingent they provided for the Freedom Parade and how the WRAC personnel were providing excellent service and always keep morale high. The Jubilee Parade provided the perfect platform to showcase the extent of the skill – both human and animal – that lay behind the Depot gates.
It was in the October 1978 notes that the ADTS mentioned an overspill of dogs frequently encroaching on other departments. At the time, the number of dogs in the kennels was three times the number in 1968 – though, sadly no actual numbers were provided. No wonder that the promised rebuild was so eagerly awaited so all could be accommodated. The Dog School had met all commitments and also ran a one day ‘dog catchers’ course for the Council employees as part of the Leicestershire Rabies Contingency Plan.
Equine Division outlined in May 1978 that they held a Pack Horse Exercise with RAVC Recruits and WRAC, where over a two-day period horses were loaded up with pack saddles and all marched to Kibworth Ranges for an overnight stay with the horses on piquet lines. The following day all fired 9mm pistols on the ranges and returned by horsebox in the afternoon.
Earlier in the year, in March 1978, Chiron Calling covered the Corps Weekend – the first time, for many years that members of the public had been invited in through the gates and visited the various departments. On the chosen Sunday of the open day the first problem was car parking – there wasn’t enough of it. The response was far greater than expected; an estimated one thousand people visited the ADTS, School of Farriery and School of Equitation in the one-and-half hours that the Centre was ‘open’.
For the third year running the RAVC Association Dinner was held in the JR Cookhouse, with one hundred and forty-seven seated to enjoy another superb meal and good company to reminisce. However, the Corps’ Christmas activities were curtailed by the National Fireman’s Strike of 1977 – 1978. The presence of the Army’s fire-fighting crews and ‘Green Goddesses’ parked outside ready for action became a constant reminder of the disruption that many will well recall.
It was, again, pretty much business as usual for the Forge, except that their report included the creation of a special wrought iron park bench
27 Soldier Magazine dated November 1977.
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