INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF VETERINARY AND ANIMAL MEDICINE (ISSN:2517-7362)

During the 1880s the people of Sudan rebelled against Egyptian rule. A charismatic religious leader claiming to be the Mahdi (“Guided One”) led the uprising and was succeeded by the Khalifa (“Successor”). The Sudanese were victorious over the Egyptian occupiers and took control of the country when a British expeditionary force attempted to rescue the British General Gordon who was killed and Khartoum was captured. A decisive victory by the British military with some support from Egypt at the Battle of Omdurman in September 1898 resulted in the reconquest of the country. The Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, nominally a joint administration by the two countries but essentially a British enterprise, was established as a Condominium shortly afterwards [1,2]. A large military presence maintained to a large extent law and order and enabled the Condominium to be administered. This arrangement required enormous numbers of cavalry and transport animals (horses, mules, donkeys and camels) to govern and control the turbulent population. The health of these animals was a major consideration in the setting up of a fledgling veterinary service. In all,12 people served as Principal Veterinary Officers (to 1910) or as Directors of Veterinary Services (from 1910 to 1956) in the 55-year period from the setting up of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1901 to the achievement of independence by the Republic of Sudan on 1 January 1956. During the early years the small number of veterinarians were military officers who were seconded, usually for short periods, from the British to the Egyptian Army which in turn employed them directly or seconded them to the Sudan. V R Smith was the first of the twelve expatriate personnel who served as head of the Sudan Veterinary Service, occupying that post for a short period in 1902. Sudan was the seventh of all tropical countries to establish a veterinary service and the fourth in Africa after Zimbabwe (1890), Lesotho (1896) and Kenya (1897) [3]

According to one source [4]:

This information is repeated by another source [5]. It appears, however, they were both wrong. No V R Smith is listed in the Army Veterinary Department section of the 1902 nor the 1903 editions of a major source of military personnel [6,7]. He is not mentioned in an authoritative history of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps (as the veterinary services had then become) [8]. His name does not appear in a journal article about the veterinary services in Sudan [9] and there is no entry for him in what is claimed to be a complete biography of British Army Officers who served in Sudan [10]. A thorough search of the relevant literature failed to find any V R Smith in any Regiment or Corps of the British Army at any time from 1895 to 1915. In addition to these lacunae, no V.R. Smith was ever a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons [11].

V.R. Smith wrote the Annual Report of the Veterinary Service in 1902 and signed himself PVO and ‘miralei’ (Appendix A) [12]1 . The title Principal Veterinary Officer implies subordinate staff but there is little evidence that were any other than a Mr Hill, described by Smith’s successor George Richard Griffith as a Civil Veterinary Surgeon to the Sudan Government (that is, he was not employed by the Egyptian Army) [13]. Hill’s role appeared to be to collect information on rinderpest from his own observations and from reports from guard posts and other areas of the country. Smith’s report provides more information on the general disease situation than might have been expected from a military vet and also considers the use of equines and oxen for draught and transport purposes.

The only other reference to Smith in Sudan that has been found is from a report of February 1902 [14]. This covers the actions of a camel patrol from Khartoum to Gule (now in the Republic of South Sudan). Towards the end of the patrol period [14]:

Jebel Surkum lies to the south east of Gule near to the SudanEthiopian border: the raid in question was probably a cross-border one by Ethiopian bandits to rustle cattle. Smith was probably already Principal Veterinary Officer at this early stage of 1902 as he is referred to as ‘bey’. In addition it can be assumed that he left the post sometime during the year because in his Annual Report on conditions in the Sudan for 1902, written on 13 January 1903, the Governor General already refers to George Richard Griffith as Principal Veterinary Officer.

There are no records of any campaign or bravery medals ever being awarded to V.R. Smith. It is not only in his military service, however, that he is an enigma. No records have been found in any census or civil registration records nor in the main genealogical and family history web sites of a possible candidate for this particular Smith. This not withstanding Miralai V R. Smith is important in the pantheon of Sudan’s chief veterinary officers during the Condominion period not only because he was the first to occupy such a post but also because of his recognition that “domestic” stock, as opposed to “military” animals, would make important contributions to the economy of Sudan in future years.