Albiston, Harold Edward, BVSc 1918, DVSc 1929

The Harold E Albiston Oration

It is a great honour to be asked by the College to give this oration to honour Dr HE Albiston, who I believe is one of the outstanding veterinary graduates produced in this country and whom I have known for over 40 years.

Last year Dr GT Clarkson, a Melbourne veterinary practitioner who is writing a thesis on Dr Albiston, asked Dr AK Sutherland and me to list whom we thought were the 10 most notable Australian veterinary graduates to 1950.  In alphabetical order, we listed HE Albiston, HW Bennetts, LB Bull, I Clunies Ross, JA Gilruth, M Henry, WT Kendall, HR Seddon, JD Stewart and AW Turner, and gave our personal opinion that Bull was the most notable followed closely by Albiston.  I am sure that those listed by us were outstanding veterinary graduates whose reputations have stood the test of time.  Of course, since 1950 and overlapping with our list, there have been many other veterinary graduates who have made great contributions; names such as DC Blood, HMcL Gordon, TG Hungerford, WA Snowdon and A Webster Snr, among others, spring to mind, but our brief was directed towards those early graduates.

When one considers Dr Albiston in relation to others on our list of the 10 most notable veterinary graduates, he did not sustain his research output over a lifetime as did Bennetts, Bull or Turner, nor did he establish a veterinary school as did Gilruth, Kendall, Seddon and Stewart.  Albiston was more of an all-rounder being distinguished in research, in diagnostic pathology and in teaching but even more importantly he was a focal point for the profession in Victoria and, by his own example and his encouragement of others, he set a standard of professionalism from which all of us have benefited.

As many present have probably never met Dr Albiston (he retired in January 1963 and is now 96), I will outline his career.  Some of this was given in the citation for the Gilruth Prize, which he received in 1959 and which was published in the Australian Veterinary Journal 35: 341-342, 1959, and in Dr Clarkson’s thesis.

Harold Albiston graduated in August 1918 from the University of Melbourne.  He had a distinguished undergraduate career crowned by obtaining 1st class honours in all subjects in final year.  he immediately enlisted and was posted to an army remount depot at Maribyrnong, Victoria, and later to England.

He was on board ship heading for Europe via the Panama Canal when World War I ended.  He returned home but, in a bureaucratic bungle, was again sent to Europe arriving there when all efforts were being made to get people home.  He and Bill Hindmarsh from New South Wales were sent to Belgium to relieve those veterinarians who had been there for some time.  He finally got back to London where he spent some time with the notable pathologist, Sir John M’Fadyean, at the Royal Veterinary College.

At the end of 1919 there were still great delays in getting troops home, but he managed to speed things up by accepting a posting as Education Officer on board ship.  Ostensibly he was to use the various tradesmen on board to give preliminary training to others so they would be more suited for civilian life.  They were given chests of tools to use but, needless to say, they were never opened; but Albiston got home to commence his distinguished career.  It is of interest that a fellow 1918 graduate enlisted and was sent directly to the Middle East where, as Captain Fethers, he served with Major AB (‘Banjo”) Patterson of the Remount Corps.

Albiston’s career can be summarised as follows.  He was the longest serving member of the Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, 47 years from 1922 to 1969; the longest serving member of the board of the Royal Melbourne Zoological Gardens, 43 years from 1938 to 1981; the longest serving honorary editor of the Australian Veterinary Journal, 23 years, from 1939 to 1946, when there were 6 issues a year, and 1947 to 1962 when the Journal was issued monthly.  He was the Director of the Veterinary Research Institute for 32 years, and was a member of the Veterinary Board of Victoria for 33 years, from 1930 to 1963.  he was awarded the DVSc in 1929 for his research into black disease, and tuberculosis and actinomycosis of the mammary gland of the cow.  The Australian Veterinary Association awarded him its highest honour, the Gilruth Prize, in 1959 and he was awarded the CBE in 1963.  He is a foundation Fellow of this College.

This outline, while impressive and showing how he served the profession diligently over a long period, does not mention his Presidency of the AVA 1932-1933 and his long association with AVA Council.  Nor does it mention his professionalism, the outstanding research he did in his early years, his teaching and most importantly the very strong influence he had on veterinary graduates during that period.  I would like to expand on each of these.

Albiston was the embodiment of a professional man of his times.  He dressed well, spoke well and, while always friendly and helpful, exuded authority.  He was always addressed as Dr Albiston, except by a few colleagues of his own age.  Indeed, it was not until after his retirement that I and others of my vintage had the courage to address him as Harold, and for years I felt uncomfortable doing so.

I once asked him about this professional attitude and his reply was interesting.  As an undergraduate he walked each day about a mile and a half from the train terminus at Flinders Street, up Elizabeth Street to the Veterinary School.  Each day he passed the premises of Mr Harry Rye, farrier and veterinary surgeon, who often could be seen in his leather apron and singlet.  Rye was one of those who was registered as a veterinary surgeon when the 1888 Act was proclaimed, because although unqualified, he had been practising as a veterinary surgeon for some years before its enactment.

A similar situation occurred in the UK when the Royal College attempted to draw up its register.  I Pattison (The British Veterinary Profession 1791-1948, JA Allen, London, 1985) stated that the RCVS was inundated with various denominations of horse doctors, horse surgeons, farriers, cow leeches, cattle doctors, castrators, spayers and gelders, charmers, spell workers, butty colliers and water doctors.  Albiston’s reaction to Harry Rye was to say the profession must present a better face and he always did so.

He was an excellent teacher and researcher.  In 1920 he was appointed as lecturer in anatomy and from 1923 to 1927 taught pathology and bacteriology.  When Dr Georgina Sweet retired about 1925, he also taught parasitology and continued to teach parasitology as a half science unit after the veterinary school closed at the end of 1927.  In the mid-thirties he resigned, pleading pressure of work.  In fact, he resigned as he believed that, in principle, one should get paid for extra duties, and by resigning and getting EM Pullar appointed to this position he got this principle accepted.

Albiston organised and taught the first graduate course in Australia.  The outbreaks of Newcastle disease in 1930 and 1932 were quickly diagnosed and controlled.  Albiston later commented that their success in eradicating this disease gave them great credibility and established the reputation of the VRI.  As most practitioners knew little about poultry diseases Albiston conducted a graduate course in 1933.  This was so successful that a course on cattle diseases was run in 1934.

Informally, Albiston remained a teacher throughout his career.  Initially there were few graduates.  The Victorian Register commenced in 1888; he was registered number 176 in 1918, while I was registered number 334 in 1952.  However, after World War II there was a rapid increase in the number of veterinary graduates in Victoria and all used the VRI in some way.

The VRI was not only the centre of excellence for veterinary science in Victoria, it was the centre of all veterinary activity.  The AVA met there, the Journal was edited there, and all queries on veterinary matters were directed there.  Albiston, EM Pullar and CJ Gorrie were always friendly, patient and helpful and all field veterinarians used their services freely.

In 1957 Professor RD Wright, Dean of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne, formed a committee to consider the need for the faculty to be re-established.  Dr Albiston chaired the committee, which recommended re-opening the school and eventually, in 1963, this took place.

Dr Albiston’s service to teaching continued in retirement.  From 1963 he edited the second edition of the six volumes of Diseases of Domestic Animals in Australia.  He wrote a seventh volume on metabolic diseases, which was published in 1975.  these volumes provided graduates and undergraduates with an up-to-date source of material that was invaluable.

Albiston’s research career began in 1920 when he was awarded a two-year Walter and Eliza hall Fellowship to investigate braxy-like diseases in sheep.  He clearly established the existence of black disease, described the clinical condition, isolated and described the causal organism, and identified it as Bacillus oedematiens.  In an act of extraordinary generosity Albiston gave these cultures to Arthur Turner, who had joined the staff of the Veterinary School in 1925, and trained him in the appropriate bacteriological techniques.  Turner took the cultures with him when he joined the Pasteur Institute in 1926 and was able to prove conclusively that the organism was B. oedematiens, and continued the work to elucidate the pathogenesis of the disease.

In the citation for Albiston’s Gilruth Prize, Turner wrote “.... being convinced that the advancement of veterinary science and of the livestock industry transcends that of the individual, Harold Albiston, ever indifferent to personal kudos, gladly made available to a young colleague these almost priceless cultures.  He trained him in his techniques and thereby hastened the solution of an important national problem, while at the same time helping that colleague to reap rewards of credit which a less altruistic figure might easily have reserved for himself ....”

In 1923 Albiston was appointed officer-in-charge of the Milk Testing Laboratory.  From this he developed an interest in diseases of the udder and published excellent studies on Mycobacterium tuberculosis and other acid-fast mycobacteria in the Melbourne milk supply and into staphylococcosis and actinomycosis of the udder.  After 1930 Albiston did little personal research and has been criticised for this.  It is a pity that the VRI did not have graduate students as the experienced and dedicated staff would have been excellent supervisors.  But we should remember that the diagnostic demands made on the staff made it impossible to carry out detailed projects.  Further, the VRI, which was a University department, was supposed to be funded by the Department of Agriculture and was unable to cope with changes in technology or building improvements.  Major disease outbreaks were handled with great difficulty.

Further, the CSIR Division of Animal Health had commenced in part of the old veterinary school in 1928 and conducted research into the major diseases of sheep and cattle, while the VRI carried out all the diagnostic work for the State including the Zoological Gardens.

However, Dr Albiston served on the research committees on bovine mastitis and ovine toxaemic jaundice, and he and his colleagues carried out some small research projects and by their advice and encouragement helped many young graduates.

On 10 January 1921, the inaugural meeting of the AVA was held in the lecture theatre of the Melbourne Veterinary School.  Max Henry from New South Wales was the driving force in its establishment.  For many years monthly meetings and the annual general meeting of the Victorian Division were held in the VRI.  In my early years in Victoria we could guarantee 20 to 25% of membership throughout Victoria to come to the monthly meetings and 50 to 60% to come to the AGM.  All came for professional fellowship and to discuss problems with VRI staff and others.  Many came early, had dinner together and stayed on after supper for prolonged discussion.

Graduates were always welcome at VRI.  Even a new graduate was brought into the circle, made to feel welcome, a part of a great profession and encouraged to become interested in the AVA.  I have no doubt that the great strength of the AVA in Victoria in those years was due to the encouragement and example of the staff of the VRI, but particularly Dr Albiston.

This, to me, was his greatest strength.  His wise counsel, his generosity, his enthusiasm and encouragement, particularly of younger graduates, his presence on many committees where he ably represented the veterinary profession, and his involvement in veterinary associations, make him a very special veterinary graduate.

When the proposal for a College was raised in the AVA he was one who supported it, as he had the adoption of the courtesy title.  He was always far-seeing.  It gave him particular joy to see three children of his daughter, Janet Bissett, graduate in veterinary science from Melbourne.  The youngest, Sally, graduated in December 1992, and Dr Albiston attended both the graduation ceremony and the graduation dinner, just 74 years after his own graduation.

Mr President, Dr Albiston commented to me a few days ago that he thought the profession was in capable hands.  I agree that it is.  We more recent graduates have had our paths made easier and our professional skills more readily recognised by the community and by other professional organisations by the work and example of Dr Harold Albiston and other great veterinarians of his era.  It is a pleasure to recognise this debt.

Harold Edward Albiston

The death of Dr Harold Edward Albiston on 13 August 1994 marks the end of an era in veterinary science in this country.  He was the last of a group of veterinarians who led the profession through the years between the two great wars and into the post-war decades.  Along with Bull, Clunies-Ross, Bennetts, Seddon and others, he guided the profession from the trauma of the decline of the horse to the expansion of government and private veterinary Services to the live­stock industries and the great developments in private small animal practice.

Harold Albiston was born on 26 March 1897, son of a Methodist minister and Professor of Theology at the University of Melbourne.  He was educated at Victorian State Primary Schools, won a scholarship to Wesley College, Melbourne, and was awarded an exhibition to the veterinary school of the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1918.  He went straight into the army and was sent to Belgium just at the end of the first world war to assist in the demobilisation and classification of horses used in the war.

After a short sojourn in England at the Royal Veterinary College, he returned to Victoria and joined the staff of the Melbourne Veterinary School in 1923 being appointed in charge of the Milk Testing Laboratory within the school.  In 1927 the veterinary school ceased teaching, but continued at a veterinary diagnostic and research institute within the University of Melbourne known as the Veterinary Research Institute. Albiston was appointed Director in 1931 and retired in 1963.

Albiston played a significant role in the elucidation of infectious necrotic hepatitis (black disease) of sheep, and in 1929 was awarded the degree of Doctor of Veterinary Science by the University of Melbourne for research into that disease, tuberculosis of cattle and actinomycosis of the bovine mammary gland.

During his years as director, the Institute was the focal point for veterinary science and the veterinary profession in Victoria.  It was the only veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Victoria.  Meetings of the Australian Veterinary Association were held there, as were meetings of the Veterinary Board of Victoria.  Albiston was always an acknowledged and welcome source of advice on veterinary matters to colleagues of all ages, professional standing and activities over those years.  He instituted the first graduate educational courses in Australia when he gave a series of lectures at the Institute in 1933 on diseases of poultry, followed in 1934 by diseases of cattle.

Even though veterinary teaching had ceased in the University of Melbourne in 1927, the Veterinary Faculty continued to exist to discuss policy associated with first year veterinary students and other veterinary matters.  Albiston was a member of Faculty from 1922 to 1969 and in 1957 became chairman of a committee to consider whether a full course of veterinary science should be re-established.  The Faculty responded to the Committee's recommendation and, in support of an initiative by the Victorian Division of the Australian Veterinary Association, moves were set in motion that ultimately resulted in the re-opening of the veterinary school and resumption of teaching in 1963.

Harold Albiston attended the first meeting of the Australian Veterinary Association at the Veterinary School, University of Melbourne, in January 1921.  From the beginning he was deeply involved in its activities.  He became Federal President in 1933 and President of the Victorian Division [Veterinary Association of Victoria]  in 1934.

Of all Albiston's achievements, his period as Editor of the Australian Veterinary Journal from 1939 to 1962 must be considered one of the greatest in his contributions to the progress of the veterinary profession.  He steered the Journal through the difficult years of the second world war, implemented monthly publication in 1947 and, by the high standards he set, improved the scope and quality of its scientific content.  This enabled the Journal to achieve a high reputation as a scientific publication within Australia and overseas.  Albiston was elected a Fellow of the Australian Veterinary Association in 1949 and was awarded the Gilruth Prize for meritorious service to veterinary science in Australia in 1959.

Harold Albiston was a member of the Veterinary Board of Victoria from 1930 to 1963, remains the longest serving member and was President from 1960 to 1963.  He was a member of the Zoological Board of Victoria from 1938 to 1981 and made a significant contribution to the many aspects of veterinary life of Australia.  The present strength of the profession nation-wide and particularly in Victoria is in no small measure due to his influence, while the Australian Veterinary Journal remains his tangible and lasting memorial.

Further information on the life and work of Dr Albiston was given in the Albiston Oration presented at a meeting of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists in 1993 by Dr JH Arundel (Aust Vet J70:281).

A biography was presented by Dr GT Clarkson in a thesis entitled The Life and Veterinary Contribution of Dr Harold E Albiston, for which the author was admitted to the degree Master of Education of the University of Melbourne in 1992.

Dr Albiston's wife, Hazel, pre-deceased him.

He is survived by two sons and two daughters.  Three children of his daughter, Janet Bissett, are graduates in veterinary science from the University of Melbourne.  He was grandfather of 15 and great-grandfather of 10 children.

To all of them the Association expresses its appreciation for Dr Albiston's distinguished lifetime contribution to veterinary science and to the community.