Young James Herriot

by John Lewis-Stempel

  If it’s all the same to you folks I think it would be better if I stayed on here even though I get no more pay. You see, I get free driving practice, I’m in touch with veterinary affairs and, most important of all, I would get no chance to get rusty and stale as I would at home with nowt to do. Here, I’m learning every day and there is just a chance that Mac might slip me something now and again towards my board. Don’t be too upset about the job, something may turn up.

  As to recreation, I have had none and haven’t seen any of my friends and relatives. I get home just in time for a game of cards with George and then early to bed. Mac hasn’t given me my pay yet but he slipped me a quid on account at the beginning of the week so I was able to get Auntie Jinny a bottle of lavender water for her birthday.

  Love Alf

  P.S. Feeling fine!

  Ten days later, though, Alf was back in employment with Mac. The National Greyhound Racing Board had now decided to revitalize the Sunderland stadium, with Mac taken on as veterinary adviser. Alf’s wages went up to £4-4s per week. For once he was able to treat his parents, sending home 30s from his pay, adding ‘Buy yourself 10 Woodbines, Pop old boy!’

  To put the cherry on the icing of Alf’s cake, he then passed his driving test, although his delight was somewhat lessened when he saw the car McDowall had secured for him to drive around the practice; it was a standard model for young vets in the Thirties, a tiny tinny Ford with reluctant brakes and an engine which made ‘a colossal din’ and startled birds and horses alike. ‘The vibration is terrific over 35 mph,’ he told his parents, ‘and my liver will be in splendid condition after a month.’

  But Alf gradually decided that Sunderland was not the place for a long-term veterinary career. McDowall continued to be unpleasantly explosive, a question mark still hung over the greyhound stadium despite all the fine words, and the wind whipping off the grey North Sea made the town infinitely dreary in winter. He began perusing the scant advertisements in the Veterinary Record.

  One day, leafing through, he saw a post advertised in Thirsk. ‘Mainly agricultural work in a Yorkshire market town’ was the job description. Perhaps there would be green and pleasant hills…The principal of the practice at 23 Kirkgate was a graduate of the Royal (‘Dick’) College, Donald Sinclair MRCVS. Eventually, after finding Thirsk on the map, about 50 miles south of Sunderland, Alf thought the job would do, and set pen to paper.

  Dear Mr Farnon…

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  PRIMARY SOURCES

  J. A. Wight, The Art and the Science, unpublished novel

  J. A. Wight Diary 1933

  J. A. Wight Diary 1934 (transcribed by Margaret Tipton)

  J. A. Wight Casebook ‘Practice Seen with TB Fleming MRCVS during 1937’

  J. A. Wight Casebook ‘Cases Seen with Mr JJ McDowall MRCVS’ 1938

  Interview with K. Mitchell 2011

  Interview with Jim Wight 2011

  Interview with Rosie Page 2011

  Interview with Peter Jinman, OBE MRCVS 2011

  Interview with Nigel Carter

  Nigel Carter ‘Recipe Book’

  DCC 144/5/1/1 Inventory and Valuation: The Glasgow Veterinary College (Incorporated), December 1937, Glasgow University

  DCC 144/3/2/2 Register of Students No. 2, Glasgow University

  DCC 144/3/5/2 Register of Students’ Class Marks, Glasgow University

  SECONDARY SOURCES

  Anonymous, Hillhead High School 1885–1961, 1962

  Anonymous, Veterinary Counter Practice, 1930

  Anonymous, ‘Mary Brancker’, Obituaries, Daily Telegraph, 30 July 2010

  Anonymous, Glasgow Veterinary School 1862–1962, 1962

  Edward Boden, ‘Dame Olga Uvarov’, Independent, 7 July 2001 – ‘Practice and Politics: the British Veterinary Association 1881–1919’ www.bva.co.uk/public/documents/BVA_history_1881-1919.pdf

  John Carroll and Garry Stuart, Tractors, 2002

  Helen Clark and Elizabeth Carnegie, She Was Aye Workin’, 2003

  David Daiches, Glasgow, 1982

  Jean Faley, Up Oor Close, 1990

  Thomas Firbank, I Bought a Mountain, 1959

  Connie M. Ford, Aleen Cust, 1990

  Ernest A. Gray, ‘John Hunter and Veterinary Medicine’, Medical History, January 1957

  James Herriot, If Only They Could Talk, 1970

  – It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet, 1972

  – Let Sleeping Vets Lie, 1973

  – Vet in Harness, 1974

  – Vets Might Fly, 1976

  – Vet in a Spin, 1977

  – The Lord God Made Them All, 1981

  – Every Living Thing, 1992

  – James Herriot’s Yorkshire, 1979

  – James Herriot’s Dog Stories, 1986

  Miles Horsey, Tenements & Towers, 1990

  Pamela Hunter, Veterinary Medicine: A Guide to the Historical Sources, 2004

  Robert Jeffrey, Gangs of Glasgow, 2002

  Rudolph Kenna and Ian Sutherland, They Belonged to Glasgow, 2001

  Margaret Leigh, Highland Homespun, 1936

  Graham Lord, James Herriot: The Life of a Country Vet, 1997

  James McCunn, Hobday’s Surgical Diseases of The Dog and Cat, 1947

  Alan McKinlay, Making Ships, Making Men: Working for John Brown’s – Between the Wars, 1991

  Meccano Magazine, December 1931

  William C. Miller, Black’s Veterinary Dictionary, 1928

  H. O. Monnig, Veterinary Helminthology and Entomology, 1938

  H. V. Morton, In Search of Scotland, 1929

  J. P. Muller, My System, 1931

  C. A. Oakley, The Second City, 1967

  Iain Pattison, John Mcfadyean, 1981

  Hugh B. Peebles, Warship Building on the Clyde, 1987

  J. M. Reid, Glasgow, 1956

  Michael J. Rossi, James Herriot: A Critical Companion, 1997

  J. A. Scott Watson, The Farming Year, 1938

  Eddie Straiton, Animals Are My Life, 1979

  Fred M. Walker, Song of the Clyde, 1984

  Ralph Whitlock, A Short History of Farming in Britain, 1966

  William T. W. Wells, A Handy Book of Reference for Farmers in Scotland, 1920

  Jim Wight, The Real James Herriot, 1999

  INDEX

  (AW indicates Alf Wight.)

  The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created. To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader.

  agriculture, decline in British, 1922–45 114–15, 240

  All Creatures Great and Small (TV show) xi

  Anatomia Del Cavallo (‘The Anatomy of the Horse’) (Ruini) 99

  Anatomy of the Domestic Animal, The (Sisson) 141

  Anderson, Gerry 154

  Animals (Anaesthetic) Act, 1919 121

  Annals of Glasgow, The (Cleland) 18

  Armatage, Professor George 133

  Art and the Science, The (unpublished work) 134, 142–8, 152, 155–6, 186–98

  Ash, Dorothy 87

  Baird, John Logie 84

  Ballantyne, Mr and Mrs 181–2

  Begg, Professor Hugh 141–2, 152

  Bell, Jane (grandmother) 13, 14

  Bell, Robert (grandfather) 13, 14

  Betjeman, John 13, 54

  bibliography 247–50

  Black’s Veterinary Dictionary 207–8

  Bolitho, William 26–7

  Books of the Veterinary Art (Vegetius) 98, 99

  Both Sides of the Burn 46

  Bourgelat, M. Claude 100, 102, 169

  Boyce, Dominic 198–9

  Boys’ Brigade 84–9, 198

  Brand, Gavin 26

  Buchanan, Jack 29

  Byrne, Johnny xi

  Byrne, William 162, 163

  calcium boroglucanate 209, 212, 213

  Cameron, Ian 233–4

  Campbell, Donald 204

  Campbell, Roddie 138

  Carnegie Trust for the Univer
sities of Scotland 156, 157

  Carnegie, Andrew 156–7

  Carruthers, Eliza 26

  Carruthers, William 26

  Carter, Nigel 126, 205–6, 209

  Castley, James 105–6

  Cataline Company of Bristol 119

  Catler, Jim 176

  Cattle Plague Prevention Act, 1866 108

  Celtic FC 80

  Chowdharry, BNS 158

  cinemas 8, 10–11, 19, 30–1, 42, 47, 51, 55, 81, 83, 89, 198

  Clyde, river 4, 15, 19–20, 21–2, 28, 29, 32, 42, 57, 62, 71, 89, 181

  Coates’s Herd Book 206

  Coleman, Edward 104

  Columella 98

  Comet 22

  Country Gentleman’s Estate Book & Diary, The 119

  ‘cow-leeches’ 98, 99, 110

  cows/cattle 98–9, 106–7

  AW comes to love 209–10

  bullocks dishorned 210

  calving 206–7

  ‘casting’ 207–8

  castration 207

  cattle plague (rinderpest) 103, 108, 131–2

  cleansing 207, 208–9

  drenching 211

  feet pared 210

  foot-and-mouth disease 107

  milk fever 209, 212–13

  ‘oedematous swellings’ 210

  pneumonia 207, 213

  post-mortemed 210

  rheumatism 207

  TB 220–2

  treating 206–12

  Cranston, Kate 54, 56

  Cugnot, Nicholas 111, 112

  Curle, Barclay 23

  Cust, Aleen 159–65

  Cust, Sir Leopold 159

  cystorectomy 215, 216

  Daily Express 61

  Dale, David 20

  Davidson, Peter xi

  Davy, Jock 71

  de Sainbel, M. Charles Vial 101–2

  Defoe, Daniel 20

  Dick, William 105–6, 131–2

  Dickin, Marie 217

  Diseases of Animals Acts, 1894–1922 118–19

  DL Company 113

  dogs:

  AW fascination with/love of 4, 68–71, 72, 73, 80, 89, 94, 173, 174, 175, 176, 242

  dissecting 173, 185, 198

  doctoring 170, 204, 206, 214–19, 222–30

  greyhounds/dog track 158, 228–9, 242

  Don (dog) 4, 68, 69, 70, 71, 80, 89, 94, 174, 175, 176, 242

  Donovan, Harry 158

  Dumfries 204–5, 206, 210, 219

  Duncan, Professor Andy 144, 167, 175, 176

  Edinburgh University 212

  Elliot, Nan 198

  Emslie, Professor J. W. 144–8, 152, 154, 223, 238–9

  English, Sam 51

  Farnon, Siegfried (fictional character) viii, xi, 53, 66, 127, 173

  Farnon, Tristan (fictional character) xi, 53, 66, 104, 178

  Farrell, Adam 199–200

  ‘Fashoda’ (Sunderland childhood home) 7, 8, 9, 13

  Field, Lady Ernest 48

  Finan, Bobby 52

  Firbank, Thomas 115, 116, 117, 211

  First World War, 1914–1918 7–8, 9, 24, 27, 29, 32, 34, 59, 112, 163–4

  fleam 126, 127

  Fleming, Tom 205, 206, 208, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217–18, 219, 223

  Flynn, Andy 158

  football 9, 38, 45, 50–2, 64, 75, 80, 142, 199, 201

  Ford, Henry 112, 113

  Fordson 113–14

  Fullerton, Billy 38, 40, 43–4

  Fulton, Lord 219

  Galloway cattle 206, 208, 209

  Galloway, D. Bryon 152–4

  Galway County Council 162–3

  General Strike, 1926 46

  Gibb, ‘Johnny’ 74

  Glaister, Professor John 139

  Glasgow viii–ix, 1–4, 15, 17–96, 97, 100, 105, 109, 113, 127, 131–201, 203, 204, 221, 223, 233–40

  accent 60, 67

  Anniesland Road, Scotstounhill 179–80

  art galleries 54, 55

  Barrhead 71

  ‘Black Friday’ 34–5

  Bridgeton 26, 38, 39

  Buccleuch Street 2, 3, 4, 134, 135, 150, 154, 157, 165, 166, 173, 199, 223

  Buchanan Street 17, 61–2, 132

  Campsite Fells 71, 180

  ‘caurs’ 24

  cinemas in 30–1, 42, 46–7, 81

  Commodore cinema 81

  comparison with America 19

  Cowcaddens 43

  Cranstons tea-rooms 54–5

  dance city 47–8

  densely populated 25

  Depression in 36, 44, 46, 62, 181

  duality of 17–18

  Dumbarton Road 23, 24, 28, 44, 48, 50, 52, 65, 68, 81, 85, 89, 111, 179

  Empire Theatre 30, 51, 168

  Fair Holiday 85

  First World War and 24, 27, 29, 32, 34

  gangs in 37–9, 42–4

  Garnet Street 1

  Garnethill 2–3, 134, 135, 199

  Gorbals 17, 26, 27–8, 40, 41

  Govan Picturedome 31, 46

  Green’s Playhouse 31

  Hillhead High School see Hillhead High School

  history of 19–21

  Hunterian art gallery, Glasgow 54

  Kelso Street 44, 45, 50, 71

  Kelvingrove art gallery 54

  Kilpatrick Hills 71, 180

  La Scala cinema 30

  ‘made-down’ tenements 26–8

  music hall in 29–30

  Nuneaton Street 37–8

  Picture House, Glasgow 30

  Picturedome cinema, Glasgow 31

  Plaza, Eglinton Toll 47–8

  Pringle’s cinema, Glasgow 30

  ‘razor kings’ 38–40, 41

  ‘Red Clydeside’ 17, 34–5

  Renfrew Street 2

  Sauchiehall Lane 131

  Sauchiehall Street 2, 27, 30, 55

  Scotstounhill 179–80, 182, 183

  Second City of the Empire 17–56

  shipbuilding in viii, 15, 17, 21–4, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 45, 50, 62, 180, 181, 241

  slums 26–8

  tobacco and alcohol in 20, 36–7, 44

  unemployment in 33, 62

  West Kilbride 87, 89, 174

  Wight’s move to 15

  Willow tea room 55

  women in 31–2

  Yarrow shipyard 15, 24, 29, 32, 34, 180

  Yoker 15, 22–5, 24, 25, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 44–6, 48, 50–2, 56, 66, 80, 84, 87, 117, 179, 181, 182, 198, 200–1

  Glasgow Agricultural Society 60

  Glasgow Corporation 234

  Glasgow Evening Times 41, 42, 150–1

  Glasgow Rangers Football Club 38, 80

  Glasgow School of Art 1–2, 91

  Glasgow Tramways 31

  Glasgow University 132, 234

  Glasgow Veterinary College viii–ix, xi, 1–4, 37, 43, 72–4, 97, 100, 109, 127, 131–66, 203

  AW’s academic record at 169, 176–9, 201

  Anatomy, AW studies 173, 183

  anatomy room 136–7, 137

  Animal Husbandry, AW studies 167, 170, 176, 178–9, 201

  AW qualifies as a vet at 239–40

  AW joins 131, 134–5, 148

  Biology, AW studies 173, 176

  birth of 131–3

  Botany, AW studies 167

  Chemistry, AW studies 167, 172, 174, 176, 201

  common room 137–8

  dancing at 185, 186, 200

  dog doctoring 170

  drinking culture 155, 185–6

  eccentric nature of 4

  Embryology, AW studies 201

  Examinations, AW takes 233–6, 237, 238–9

  female students 165–6

  funding 138–9, 157

  Highlander and Islanders at 155–6, 183

  Histology, AW studies 176, 178, 184, 201

  horse studies 170–3

  latitude of 167–8

  length of diploma 167

  Medicine and Surgery, AW studies 223

  Mitchell Library 174, 175, 177, 178, 234

 
moves site 132, 134

  ‘muscle fights’ 152

  Pathology, AW studies 223

  Pharmacology (Materia Medica), AW studies 183, 185, 201, 223

  Physics, AW studies 201

  Physiology, AW studies 176–7, 178, 201

  premises 135–8

  Senior Anatomy, AW studies 184–5, 201, 223

  staff 139–48

  Student Representative Council (SRC) 150, 174

  students 148–66

  syllabus 169–70

  textbooks 177–8

  Veterinary Hygiene, AW studies 201, 223

  week in the life of AW at 174–6

  ‘Glenafton Singers’ 46

  Golborne, John 21

  Gorman, Edward 154

  Grant, Marion 198

  Great Depression 36, 44, 46, 62, 181

  Green, George 30–1

  Greyhound Racing Association 228–9

  Grier, Angus (character) 224

  Guardian 26–7

  Hammurabi, King 97

  Handshaw, Mr 117

  Handy Book of Reference for Farmers in Scotland, A 119

  Hardy, Timothy-Robert xi

  Hempstead, Frederick 158

  Herriot, James 3

  character dialogue 60

  first publishes book viii

  greatness of books vii

  ‘Herriot Country’ viii

  horses and 173

  ‘just a country vet’ 65

  reading 65

  serialisation of books 61

  works see under individual title

  see also Wight, Alf

  Higginson’s syringe 212

  Highland Homespun (Leigh) 119–20

  Hill, Bernie (character) 186–91, 193, 198

  Hillhead High School, Glasgow 56–68, 72, 167

  academic standards 60–1

  AW leaves 96

  AW’s performance at 64–5, 73, 74–6

  cost of 61–2

  elocution lessons 60, 67

  ‘Highers’, AW takes at 73, 95–6

  moves to new site 76–8

  sport, AW involvement with at 59–60, 63–4, 78, 95

  Hillhead High School Magazine 74–6

  horses 98, 100, 101, 204

  decline in UK numbers 111–18, 240

  human-inflicted injuries to 230–1

  Husband, Jackie 52

  ‘husk’ 117

  hypodermic syringe 108, 126, 212, 213

  If Only They Could Talk (Herriot) vii, 53, 134, 170, 240

  Independent Labour Party (ILP) 35

  It Shouldn’t Happen to a Vet (Herriot) vii, 117

  James Herriot’s Dog Stories (Herriot) 71, 168, 239