Page 75 - Eclipse - RVC Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

Not expecting to pass his final exams, he had returned to work on the land when he discovered that he had in fact made the grade, but he missed his graduation ceremony, as it was the height of plum- picking season.
His early years of veterinary work included a year in Canada, where he caught rabies from a cow. The farmer insisted the animal was frothing at the mouth due to a chunk of potato stuck in its throat. As Roger checked its mouth, his arm was thoroughly chewed. The infection was diagnosed only two days before it would have become fatal. A very unpleasant, but life-saving, series of injections followed.
Returning to England, Roger took various veterinary jobs before founding his own practice at the age of 40. The early days of the business would perhaps be best illustrated by Heath Robinson. The consulting room was a small dilapidated Victorian conservatory and the operating theatre was an old cart shed.
The business grew, attracting customers from an ever-widening area. It wasn’t long before the practice had two custom-built surgeries, one in Pershore (at The Croft, where he lived until his death) and one in Evesham (next door to his childhood home). Animals and their owners always seemed to enjoy their consultations.
Roger was lucky enough to have lived and worked the true ‘James Herriot’ lifestyle. He worked in a time when the local vet was known by everyone, and treated anything and everything.
He believed that being a vet was as much an art as a science. He would diagnose most ailments by stroking, observing and applying gentle pressure here and there. This was disguised as making a fuss of the animal. In the meantime, he would keep the owners relaxed and happy — and most often laughing. He understood that happy, relaxed people make happy, relaxed animals, and vice versa.
The last time he demonstrated this was just a few days before he died. A young terrier had severely damaged her dew claw. She was howling with pain as he picked her up. Within moments she was quite content. After she jumped off his lap, he held up the claw. He had cleanly snapped it off without the dog even noticing.
After retiring shortly before his 60th birthday, Roger and Wendy travelled widely, including to both the Arctic and Antarctica.
In later years, as he became increasingly immobile, the recollection of these travels became a source of great comfort. If he had any advice to pass on to fellow vets, it would be to ‘get on and travel now – you can’t do it stuck in a chair’. He also continued to learn Spanish, even when he was certain that he’d never again travel abroad.
Despite being unsteady on his feet in his later years, he still managed to maintain his extensive and beautiful garden. It was while pottering about and feeding his koi carp on 17 July that he tripped on a loose paving stone, banged his head and suffered a stroke. He is survived by his wife, Wendy, his children, Nicola, David and Mathew, and grandchildren, Fergus and Lucy.
With Roger’s passing we have lost a true gentleman of the profession.
JOHN GODFREY OLDHAM (1949)
Pictured: John receiving his Honorary Degree of Veterinary Studies at the RVC’s Graduation ceremony in July 2014
By Mark White
Provocative; feisty; intimidating; argumentative; confrontational; challenging; thought provoking; articulate; thoughtful; genuine; trusting; generous; kind.
John Oldham – who died on 24 April 2020 at the tender age of 91 – was something of a paradox who mixed a highly professional and business-like approach to life with a mildly Bohemian lifestyle. He dedicated more than 55 years to the art of clinical veterinary practice, never compromising as he strived to achieve perfection in all that he did.
John – or JO (JayO) as he was widely known in veterinary and farming circles – lived life to the full, evolving from one interest to another as the passing of time brought physical constraints.
Born in Loughborough on 23 August 1928, he was admitted to the Royal Veterinary College in 1945 at the age of 16, qualifying (without a degree) in 1949 before his 21st birthday – surely one of the youngest ever qualified Veterinary Surgeons. He claimed to have financed his studies playing (and winning at) poker, including the night before his final exams – an indication of the confidence of the man in his own abilities but also his willingness to take risks.
After qualification he started his professional career in mixed practice in Dorset, married Monique, with whom he subsequently had 3 daughters, perfected speaking French before moving north to Hull to work with Dick Jobling who had taken over the practice started by ‘Old Man Dugdale’ in the early part of the 20th Century. He lived above the practice on Holderness Road and undertook small animal surgery, as well as racing around Holderness on farm calls. Stories of JO arriving in a cloud of dust in his Mini Cooper, untipped Gauloises in mouth were legendary among local farmers. He became a proficient skier on snow and water, and a skilful squash player. Later still he gained a private pilot’s licence in record time.
In the 1960s, the East Riding of Yorkshire became the epicentre of the emerging intensive pig industry and not only did John lead that as a veterinary surgeon but he put his money where his mouth was in setting up two of his own farms. Experience and a keen eye for what the pig was telling him led him to become one of the premier pig clinicians and defender of the pigs’ wellbeing, irrespective of the system in which they were kept. JO was later to chair the BVA’s Animal Welfare Committee as well as serving as President of the Pig Veterinary Society. He even hosted Joan Bakewell for a BBC documentary on a pig farm explaining and robustly defending sow confinement in typically eloquent manner.
JO led the way in adopting detailed sow-based recording of pig production and was part of the team to develop and apply computerised recording through Pigtails. He was a driving force behind the unique industry-funded Aujeszky’s Disease national eradication programme in the early 1980s. By then he had married Barbara, having moved to Halsham where together they built and maintained the White Cottage garden that was to later feature on Gardeners’ World.
In 1980 John’s life took a dramatic turn with the tragic death of his middle daughter Kate, after which he turned to Buddhism to help him achieve inner peace.
IN MEMORIAM
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