Vetnews | Junie 2024 28 « BACK TO CONTENTS Heloise Heyne – 4th recipient of the HH Curson Award In 1995, the Veterinary History Committee (VHC) of SAVA was established under the chairmanship of Basil Henry Pappin (19241998, BVSc Onderstepoort 1946). In 2019, the Veterinary History Society of South Africa (VHS) was registered and replaced the VHC. The Directors of the newly created Veterinary History Society (apart from Rudolph Bigalke, who was a recipient of the first awards in 2020 and was therefore recused from the decision) resolved to confer awards named after Curson on three stalwarts who collectively had created and grown the SAVA VHC to the point where it is today as the VHS. These recipients were Rudolph, Daan Verwoerd and Antonie Snijders (posthumous). The awards were presented during the 44th World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine Congress held at the Farm Inn in Pretoria from 26 to 29 February 2020. The Directors of the VHS evaluate candidates for these HH Curson awards on the overall quality and sustained nature of a person’s contributions to veterinary history in South Africa. In the case of Heloise Heyne, she was the active and caring Curator of the SA National Veterinary Museum for decades, ensuring the preservation of many historic items including the blackboard in the first student lecture hall dating back to 1908, where she threatened to take a past Director to court for wanting to destroy it. She also consistently tracked down information about people, events and buildings, invaluable for our VHS records and archives. She is one of a dwindling bunch of OP workers who knew several of the giants of the past and can confirm aspects of their activities. The VHS Directors considered her to be a most worthy recipient of the award. Apart from being the curator of the SA National Veterinary Museum, she was also the curator of the Gertrud Theiler Tick Museum at Onderstepoort and played a valuable part in the upgrading of the National Veterinary Museum in 2008. Heloise has written a biography of the first South African veterinarian, Jotella Festiri Soga (1865-1906, MRCVS Edinburgh 1886), among many other publications of historic value. She has delivered presentations on veterinary history at several conferences, including talks on parasitologists of note at the World Association for the History of Veterinary Medicine Congress in 2020 and the buildings of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute at the 39th World Veterinary Association Congress 2024 in Cape Town. Herbert Henry Curson (1892-1968, MRCVS London 1914) was the first veterinarian in South Africa to systematically record items of historical interest for the profession. Among the 175 scientific publications written by Curson are an invaluable series of articles and monographs on the veterinary history of South Africa. Annette Boshoff , Prof Gareth Bath VHS Chair Gareth Bath and Heloise Heyne Heloise Heyne with the Award Events I Awards
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