Filmer, John Francis, BVSc 1916, DVSc 1938
JOHN FRANCIS FILMER
John Francis Filmer, I.S.O., D.V.Sc., (Melbourne), D.Sc. (hon.caus.), (Massey), H.A.R.V.Sc., F.R.S.N.Z., F.A.C.V.Sc., died in Wellington, New Zealand on 19 July 1979 Dr Filmer was born in Tatura, Victoria on 16 September 1895. His father was a lay preacher in the Baptist church and an unqualified veterinary practitioner. The family moved to Western Australia and it was from there that he won a Scholarship to attend the Melbourne University from which he graduated in 1916.
He served in World War I in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in Greece and Salonika. He spent several years in private practice in Katanning, Western Australia and in 1925 he joined the Department of Agriculture in Fremantle. He worked on the problem of Denmark Disease or Enzootic Marasmus and in collaboration with E. J. Underwood showed that the cause was a cobalt deficiency.
In 1936 he moved to Victoria and took up the position of Veterinary Research Officer with the Western Districts Research Association in Camperdown. In 1938 he moved to New Zealand where he soon became the Director of the Animal Research Division of the Department of Agriculture. He retired from this position in 1960.
Dr Filmer has been Secretary to Section L of ANZAAS (1926), President and Life Member of the New Zealand Animal Production Society; he was twice President of the New Zealand Veterinary Association and was elected a Life Member in 1961. He was the President of the New Zealand Grasslands Association (1955).
In 1961 was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Society of New Zealand and in the same received the Imperial Service Order in the Queen's Birthday Honours.
In 1954 he was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal College and in 1968 Massey University conferred on him the degree of Honorary Doctor of Science. In 1971 he was elected a Life Fellow of the Australian College of Veterinary Scientists.
His death brings to a close a long and distinguished career in the fields of veterinary science, trace element nutrition, animal research and administration.