Vet in Africa

by Smith, John

"John Smith's diaries and letters home tell a remarkable story, tracing the experiences of a young vet in a tiny, close-knit colonial society, and explaining the emotional pressures of trekking for weeks on end, alone with several scores of carriers, through bush and veldt. His close-quarter observations of Africans, early this century, is an important balancing contribution to our understanding of colonial history."--BOOK JACKET. "John Smith was born into a manufacturing family in Lancashire, but his interests lay in the countryside. Aged 30, he was recruited by Dr Starr Jameson, Cecil Rhodes' lieutenant, to introduce a hundred pedigree bulls into Northern Rhodesia and to trek the country attacking cattle disease, and improving African herd management. As a vet serving in France, he gives a harrowing account of animal suffering whilst tending to, and having to destroy, horses wounded on the Western Front. Back in Northern Rhodesia, he was head of veterinary and agricultural services w