VN October 2020

Vetnews | October 2020 33 Eighty years ago there were just three veterinary science students in the 1940 final-year-class, and according to University records, one of them graduated in 1941, presumably as the result of a supplementary examination. Why so few? Five years previously, in the mid-1930s, the country was still suffering from the effects of the world-wide Great Depression and this probably influenced the decision and financial ability of students (and their parents) to apply for university admission. The official OP class photographic record of this select group has a photo of just one person, G P Bishop; his photo is flanked by the other 2 students who are represented by their names on scrolls – why? If we remember that 1940 was, like 2020, a tumultuous and chaotic year, the ‘Class of 1940’ photograph may have been an afterthought long after the new graduates had parted company and gone their separate ways: 1940 was experiencing an existential threat to all Western Allies (including South Africa) at the lowest point of the SecondWorldWar. In this month’s contribution, we present a short sketch of the life of G P Bishop, with the others to follow next month. GERHARDUS PETRUS BISHOP 12/07/1917 – 09/01/1974 Gerhardus Petrus Bishop, or‘Bolly’as he was affectionately known to colleagues and his many friends, and ‘Bunny’ to his family, was born on 12 July 1917 in Marydale, a small town in the North West Cape. He matriculated fromGreys in Port Elizabeth, where he had excelled in both the academic and sporting fields. After completing his first year at Rhodes University in Grahamstown in 1936, he was admitted to the veterinary faculty at Onderstepoort, where dedication and drive brought him many academic awards, so much so that his entire education was paid for with prizes and bursaries. On graduation in 1940, Bishop was posted as state veterinarian to Malmesbury, where he tried repeatedly but unsuccessfully to enlist for World War II; he always regretted having been classified as a ‘key’ man. After a short spell at Allerton, he was posted to Dundee, where his sense of duty, unselfishness and helpfulness was greatly appreciated by the farming community, and his work during those stormy East Coast fever days contributed to the eventual eradication of this disease. In 1949 he joined the lecturing staff of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Natal at Pietermaritzburg, where he spent the next 15 years. During this time he influenced many students to take up veterinary science. In 1961, he was part of a team that flushed 2 embryos from Border Leicester ewes in Cambridge, England; these embryos were then transported by air to Durban in the uterus of rabbits, to be subsequently implanted into 2 previously synchronised Dorper ewes. The Dorper ewes later bore one purebred Border Leicester lamb each (named Romulus and Remus) – much to the astonishment of some members of staff. This was a very successful early pioneering demonstration of long-distance embryo transfer. Bishop returned to Onderstepoort in 1965, where he spent his last six years of service until, handicapped by persistent ill-health, he retired at the early age of 55. He moved back to Pietermaritzburg, and died at the Hillcrest Hospital on 4 January 1974 after having been paralysed by a severe stroke three months previously; his funeral was attended by several colleagues and a host of professors and lecturers from the University. ‘Bolly’was a quiet, unassuming man, sincere, kind and generous; his death came as a shock to his many friends. He had two sons, George and John, his wife having pre-deceased him. George Bishop became a highly regarded veterinary diagnostician, especially in bacteriology and later in rabies control, at Allerton Laboratory, where he served for several decades. v The Class of 1940 DID YOU KNOW ? Rudolph Bigalke & Gareth Bath