VET - Faculty of Veterinary Science - 1903-1993

The records are divided into three series: Faculty (administrative) Records; Records relating to Staff and Students and Records of Schools and Departments.

Faculty records comprise Board of Studies minutes (1904-1968, 1978-1993); Report Books of the Board of Studies, later of the Faculty (...

Full description

Archive level description: Sub-fonds
Physical Description:6 series
Languages:English
Subjects:
Summary:

The records are divided into three series: Faculty (administrative) Records; Records relating to Staff and Students and Records of Schools and Departments.

Faculty records comprise Board of Studies minutes (1904-1968, 1978-1993); Report Books of the Board of Studies, later of the Faculty (1908-1969, 1984-1994); Minutes (and agenda papers) of Committees, and Steering and Advisory Groups of the Board of Studies, later the Faculty (1906 - 1999); Faculty Deans and Administrators Meetings (1993 - 1996); Lists of Students ([1904] - 1990); Operational Statistics (1974 - 1988); Annual Review papers (1991 - 1996); Planning and restructuring papers (1982 - 1987); Faculty Handbook (1982-1993); Papers of the Dean of Faculty (1969-71); R.C.V.S Examination Results (1935 - 1952); Records Relating to the Establishment of the Veterinary School at Liverpool University (1904, 1921-34, 1961, 1970); Records Relating to the Liverpool University Veterinary Medical Society (1903 - 1914); Newspaper Cuttings ([?1920s]-1949); Publications (2001).

Records Relating to Staff and Students comprise five series of photographs of staff, students and activities within the faculty (1893 - 1963).

Records of Schools and Departments include Leahurst Field Station (1929 - 1984, 1994/1995), promotional literature and photographs; Department of Veterinary Anatomy (1978-1987), Veterinary Anatomy text books; Department of Veterinary Pathology (1903 - 1992), administrative records and photographs.

Date:1903-1993
Reference Number:VET
Arrangement:

Arranged into the following secitons:

  • Faculty Records
  • Publications
  • Historical Papers
  • University of Liverpool; Veterinary Medical Society and Veterinary Alumni Association
  • Photographs of Staff, Students, buildings and equipment of the Faculty of Veterinary Science
  • Records of Schools and Departments
Related Material:Photographs of the old Veterinary Hospital, Pembroke Gardens, taken in 1978 are at D292/3-4
Bibliography:[Book] Thomas KellyFor Advancement of Learning, The University of Liverpool 1881-1981 LiverpoolLiverpool University Press1981Sydney Jones Library and Harold Cohen Library LF375.K21.
Biographical/Administrative Information:

The formation of a Veterinary School in Liverpool was first discussed in 1898 or 1899 when the leading representatives of the Veterinary profession in the Liverpool district met the Science Professors and the Principal of University College, Liverpool. The advisability of establishing a School was agreed upon but progress was prevented through lack of funds. However an Institute of Comparative Pathology was established to promote the study of Veterinary Medicine, and a Lectureship in Comparative Pathology attached to the Medical Faculty established in 1903. Shortly afterwards the city's shipowners, engaged in the transport of cattle, and others agreed to subscribe £450 annually for five years towards Veterinary Education.

The movement towards establishing a Veterinary School took a decisive step forward when Professor W. Owen Williams of the New Veterinary College, Edinburgh (granted a Royal warrant in 1873) accepted the invitation in 1904 of the recently chartered University of Liverpool to transfer his School to Liverpool. In June 1904 Council agreed that the Ordinance for the institution of a Veterinary Board be made and the Board held its first meeting on 19 October when Mr Owen Williams was recommended for appointment to the newly created Chair of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery. The School had a very humble beginning. It had no buildings of its own but Professor Rubert Boyce (Professor of Pathology) was good enough to hand over a small animal house which he had constructed out of an old greenhouse, and this was converted into a dissecting room. In addition, a number of Liverpool veterinary surgeons had opposed the scheme to establish a school here fearing that their interests would be threatened if, as they supposed would be the case, members of its staff had to engage in private practice in order to supplement their salaries.

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons also fought a rear guard action for a short time. The College, which controlled entrance into the profession through its own examinations, refused for some time to hold oral examinations at Liverpool. From the outset the School had sought to secure public recognition and support for University veterinary education, an aim which was at last achieved when the Development Commission in their report for 1924-5 recommended a grant be made on a £ for £ basis up to £15,000 for erecting buildings. Much of the credit for this achievement rests with Professor J. Share Jones (Lecturer 1904-19, Professor of Veterinary Anatomy 1919-38): it enabled a new veterinary hospital to be built in 1928 near the University whilst in 1929 the School moved from the cramped premises it had occupied by the railway cutting in Brownlow Street since 1908 to more commodious buildings in Bedford Street North.

Later developments of considerable significance in the School's history have been mainly in the period since 1941-2. In 1941-2 the Leahurst estate in Wirral was acquired for use as a Field Station and Hospital whereby great improvements in the training in farm animal practice and clinical work were made possible. The Chairs of Veterinary Surgery and Veterinary Pathology were established in 1941 and 1949 respectively. In 1950 by Order in Council the University was recognised as awarding a veterinary degree entitling its holders to registration as members of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, something which the University had been pleading for a number of years and indeed petitioned the King in Council about in 1921. In 1952 the School achieved faculty status having been part of the Faculty of Medicine for forty-eight years. A new building for the Departments of Veterinary Anatomy and Veterinary Pathology was erected in Liverpool in 1959-61, and the Chair of Veterinary Anatomy, discontinued since Professor Share Jones' retirement in 1938, re-established. Finally in 1971 new buildings were opened at Leahurst Field Station.