Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
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| Image:DickVet.jpg
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| Established | 1823 |
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| Type | Veterinary school |
| Head of School | Professor Elaine Watson |
| Location | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Affiliations | University of Edinburgh |
| Website | http://www.vet.ed.ac.uk/ |
The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, commonly referred to as the Dick Vet, is the veterinary school of the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.
Professor Elaine Watson has been head of the school since 1 August, 2005 [1].
[edit] History
Established by William Dick, a former student of the anatomist John Barclay of the University of Edinburgh, the first regular classes at the school were begun in November 1832, although free lectures to small groups of students had been provided prior to this date. The first session of regular classes was financed by student fees and a grant from the Highland Society, of which John Barclay was a director. Mary Dick, William's elder sister, was instrumental in the early administration of the school.
Although an autonomous institution, the students also attended the lectures in (human) medicine at the university.
Also a successful businessman, William Dick in 1833 paid for the erection of improved accommodation on the site of his forge in Clyde Street. This was the base for the school until it moved to its present site at Summerhall in 1914. In 1839, his school officially became a college and William Dick a professor. By the time of Dick's death in 1866, the 818 students he had taught were to be found throughout the world, among them were the founders of veterinary schools in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United States.
Upon his death, Dick bequeathed his school in trust to the burgh council of Edinburgh. It was officially named the Dick Veterinary College by his sister, in 1873, in response to a crisis caused by the establishment of the rival New Veterinary College set up by alumnus William Williams. Williams took with him a majority of the students, and the library. The two schools existed side by side in Edinburgh until 1904 when William Williams' school was moved to Liverpool, England, forming the basis of the University of Liverpool Faculty of Veterinary Science. The Royal (Dick) Veterinary College was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1906.
The college was reconstituted as an integral part of the University of Edinburgh in 1951 and became a full faculty in 1964. Reorganisation of the university in 2002 abolished faculties and the Dick Vet is now a part of the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine.
[edit] Notable alumni
- Robert Coombs
- Thomas Dalling
- John Boyd Dunlop, inventor of the first practical pneumatic tyre, and founder of Dunlop Tyres
- John McFadyean, principal of the London Veterinary School and credited as the founder of modern veterinary science
- Sir Christopher Nixon, founder of the veterinary college of University College Dublin
- Alexander Robertson
- Andrew Smith, founder of the Ontario Veterinary College, Canada, the oldest veterinary college in the Americas
- William Williams, the Welsh veterinary surgeon who founded of the New Veterinary College in Edinburgh in 1871 (which went on to become the Faculty of Veterinary Science of the University of Liverpool) and author of several standard works on veterinary science
