Page 15 - Chiron Calling Autum 2021/Spring 2022

The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1961 to 1996
Rby Robert Mares
esearched and written Foreign and Colonial Office by Robert Mares and and latterly the UN’s Food published posthumously, and Agriculture Organisation,
this rich history draws on RAVC official records and numerous recollections from interviews with contemporaneous Corps personnel. It extends the history of the RAVC building on the earlier volumes written by Brigadier John Clabby and by Major-
Robert completed, in
retirement, a degree in History at the School of Oriental and African Studies. This equipped him with the skills to bring an RAVC history to fruition.
The history he presents is in two parts. The first
includes a comprehensive general index, index of names and lists
of abbreviations to aid the casual reader and researcher alike.
The appendices give complete coverage of RAVC organisations, serving personnel across all ranks, RAVC chronology and supporting bibliographies.
The book’s foreword is written
by the RAVC Chief Veterinarian
and Remount Officer, Colonel Mark Morrison QHVS, who notes that the narrative gives a real sense of some of the variety that a career in the RAVC can offer. He recommends the history to anyone with an interest in the vocational exploits of veterinary surgeons, and as essential reading for RAVC veterinary officers. The book will also be a valuable and interesting text for anyone wishing to understand how the RAVC, and veterinary medicine and military working animal capability in the round, has evolved to remain relevant to a modern military.
Those who have a copy of Brigadier Clabby’s The History of the RAVC 1919 -1961 will find the hard back version of Robert Mares’s 1961 - 1996 volume complementary in presentation and dimension. Copies of the history can be purchased online from Digital
Print Australia either as a hardback or in softcover. (Email: books@ digitalprintaustralia.com Phone +61 8 8232 3404). It can also be viewed online here RAVC History.
General Sir Frederick Smith.
Robert Mares was a distinguished veterinary surgeon who had a life committed to public service
provides a chronological account of RAVC activities from 1961 to 1996 including conflicts
Robert
Mares was a
distinguished
veterinary
surgeon who
had a life committed to public service. He graduated from the Royal Veterinary College London in 1941 and served with the RAVC in the Middle East from 1944 to 1946. After a career in countries across Africa under the auspices of the
in Cyprus, Malaysia, the Falklands and
Northern Ireland. The second describes individual functions of the RAVC, covering army dogs, horses and other animals. This part also discusses how the Corps has adapted and remained relevant to changes
of modus operandi of
the broader British Army and societal expectations in general.
Each chapter begins with
a description
of the contemporary political context surrounding RAVC activities in British Army engagements. The book
Chiron Calling / 13
The History of the Royal Army
Veterinary Corps
1961-1996
R. G. Mares mrcvs