James Herriot was born In Sunderland
in 1916... but he was raised in Scotland.
His real name was Alfred James Wight. And he is of course the author of
a series of comic novels... based on his life as a veterinary surgeon in
Yorkshire, in the 1930s to the 50s.
(James Herriot was the pen name he adopted when he started to write).
His parents moved to Glasgow when he was a
baby, and were not very well off... His father worked in the shipping industry
and his mother was an amateur singer. His father was also musical and worked
part time as a pianist in a cinema.
Although the family were not well to
do, they paid for him to train as a vet. At the time, veterinary colleges were
glad to get students, provided the fees were paid and it wasn’t unusual for
some students to take many years to qualify.
However Alf did his training in the 1930s and qualified at the age of
23... in 1939. He took a job in a veterinary practice, but within a year or so,
he moved to Thirsk, in Yorkshire, to the job he would have all his working
life. He joined the practice of Donald Sinclair... who would be portrayed as
Siegfried Farnon in the books... Sinclair who was an eccentric and very “eager
for action” kind of man…was anxious to find someone to run his practice while
he joined the RAF.
Alf loved the countryside, and was
very happy to work in the beautiful landscape of the Yorkshire Dales... At the
time, small animal work was not a big part of veterinary practice... so his job was mainly working with horses and
farm animals. However by the 1930s, the
days of farm horses were almost over and tractors were now being used on farms…Donald
Sinclair was a “horse lover” who enjoyed working with horses and enjoyed
equestrian sports.
Brian, Donald’s younger brother - was
still a veterinary student at the beginning of Alf’s time in Thirsk.
He is portrayed as Tristan in the books and
was, like his comic incarnation, something of a prankster. He loved to enjoy
himself and to play jokes... and while he was intelligent he did not apply
himself to his studies. He took several
years to qualify as a vet but he did work in the practice in the early years –
acting as driver, assistant and sometimes treating animals. However for a time the burden of the very
hard work of country practice landed on Alf, until he too joined the RAF. Donald was let go from the RAF because he had
lied about his age and his reflexes were not as good as he had hoped.. He was
in any case in a reserved occupation.
Alf spent a year in the RAF but he was also invalided out because of
medical problems which made it impossible for him to serve…
No comments:
Post a Comment