VN August 2020

Vetnuus | Augustus 2020 36 7. Lorraine Albré de Jager Lorraine Albré de Jager, a part-time Free State farmer’s daughter, was born on 27 October 1933. She attended the Jan Celliers primary and Helpmekaar Girls High schools in Johannesburg. Better known as Albré to her fellow students, she was the 7th woman to qualify as a veterinarian. Her interest in veterinary medicine evolved from the dedicated care of a pup with distemper as a 10-year-old girl to the realisation of a dream of becoming a veterinarian when she was admitted to the Onderstepoort Faculty in 1954. She suffered the then customary discrimination against female aspiring veterinary students by some university personnel and teasing by fellow students. This included a congratulatory kiss from each of the males of the class of 15 students on her 21st birthday. As there were as yet no hostel facilities for women, she was accommodated with the two hostel matrons for the duration of her Onderstepoort course. Lorraine joined the Johannesburg SPCA after qualifying in 1957. One of her rather unique patients was a lion cub. She married a colleague, Anthonie (Tonie) Snijders - a 1953 graduate - in 1959. While raising four children, three sons and a daughter, she regularly did locums for various Johannesburg veterinarians, taking her pre- school children with her. She also ran a small practice from home. Tonie joined the pharmaceutical company Merck Sharp & Dohme in 1961 and was transferred to the USA in 1975 where he spent the next 13 years of his career. Lorraine developed a special interest in cardiology when her father died of a heart attack a year after their arrival in the USA. After exposure to the discipline at a medical heart and lung hospital, she completed a master’s degree in veterinary cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania, her thesis being on cardiac troponins. As a divorcee and with this unique qualification, Lorraine decided to settle in the USA, becoming seriously involved as a consultant in several specialist practices in New Jersey and Pennsylvania and concentrating on echo cardiology. She currently resides in Lumberton, New Jersey and according to her eldest son, Louis, who is also an Onderstepoort graduate now practising in the USA, she still attends conferences regularly. 8. Lente van der Merwe Lente van der Merwe was the 8th woman graduate of the Onderstepoort Faculty. As previously, the Dean of the Faculty was somewhat negative about her career choice, arguing that women denied male candidates destined to be breadwinners the opportunity to augment the country’s chronic shortage of veterinarians. Later, when her large-animal practice was firmly established, however, he paid her a visit and congratulated her on her success. As there were as yet no hostel facilities for women, she was accommodated with a lecturer, Dr Daan Smit and his wife, for the duration of her course. Having qualified in 1957, Lente was appointed as the first female state veterinarian in South Africa in 1958 at the Cape Town laboratory on a salary of £49-10-0 per month, on par with that of her male colleagues, where she did mainly poultry and quarantine work. THE SEVENTH AND EIGHTHWOMEN TO GRADUATE AS VETERINARIANS FROM ONDERSTEPOORT DID YOU KNOW ? Rudolph Bigalke & Gareth Bath >>> 35