figure a

Dr. John A. Hammond, editor in chief of Tropical Animal Health and Production from 1990 to 1993

John Hammond, who belonged to a well-established farming family in Norfolk, was the great grandson of a veterinary surgeon and the nephew of the eminent physiologist, veterinarian and pioneer in artificial insemination, Sir John Hammond. It was his consistent delight to return to Norfolk on every appropriate occasion. In the family tradition, John was educated at Gresham’s school in Holt and also when the school was evacuated to Newquay in Cornwall during the war. It was here that he developed his lifelong passion for cricket.

Within a year of graduating from the Royal Veterinary College in 1948, John had obtained the Diploma of Veterinary State Medicine of the RCVS. He also gained one of the first diplomas in Tropical Veterinary Medicine to be awarded by the University of Edinburgh when the course restarted in 1956 and the Diploma in Applied Parasitology and Entomology from the London School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene in 1965.

Between graduating from the RVC and returning to The Dick Vet in Edinburgh in 1964, John also gained a great deal of practical field experience. Apart from his periods of study in the UK and an initial few months in practice in Norfolk, he had spent these years working for the Colonial Office. He was, successively, a district veterinary officer in the field at Mwanza on the shores of Lake Victoria and the first veterinary research officer in Tanganyika.

As a PhD student, John was therefore unusually well qualified and experienced, both academically and in the field. His doctoral research on the pathogenic importance of the tropical liver fluke, Fasciola gigantica, in domestic ruminants was conducted at the laboratories of the then East African Veterinary Research Organisation at Muguga, near Nairobi, rather than at Edinburgh.

John characteristically applied himself conscientiously and effectively to his research, producing a large amount of relevant data. These were not only presented in his thesis but also formed the basis of several of his 20-odd published papers, mostly in peer-reviewed journals. His work confirmed the importance of fasciolosis in cattle and sheep in Kenya but also showed that the pathological manifestations of this disease in the locally born but imported breeds of cattle used in his studies differed in several important respects from those previously described in White Fulani zebu in Nigeria.

In 1970, the new Dr. Hammond joined the Tropical Unit in the Department of Animal Health at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, shortly before it became the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM). It soon became clear that his ability to undertake thorough independent research work extended equally to his other roles at the centre. Prominent among these was teaching on all three MSc courses ultimately offered at the CTVM and supervising postgraduate students. In most years, he undertook overseas assignments, some for the British Government, some as an external examiner for the Universities of Khartoum, Makerere and Al Fateh (Tripoli) and some as the supervisor for postgraduate students, who were conducting their research in the field in their home countries. He also went as an adviser on a particularly successful undergraduate expedition to Belize.

John was not only an invaluable colleague for the staff at the CTVM over more than two decades, but he was also particularly well respected by students from a wide geographical range of backgrounds, extending from Indonesia to Peru and from Finland to Lesotho. In addition to teaching, he supervised the research work of many MSc and several PhD students. The latter mainly studied aspects of the epidemiology, pathogenicity and immunology of fasciolosis.

John also headed up the Documentation Section at the CTVM, including initiating its information service. From1976 to 2003, he was a consultant scientific editor for the journal Tropical Animal Health and Production and its editor in chief from 1990 to 1993.

Dr. Hammond was promoted to senior lecturer in 1978 and, although he retired formally from his university post in 1992, he continued, like several of his nominally retired colleagues, to teach at the CTVM for a number of years. Hence, it is impossible to state with any accuracy when his input to the work of the Centre ceased. Happily, this had occurred before the reduction in the demand for places on its courses fell, as the authorities in most tropical countries decided that their home universities could supply their needs.

Like his colleagues, John could regard with satisfaction the role of the CTVM in training much of the next generation’s cohort of tropical veterinarians as being virtually coincidental with his own professional life’s work. He would have been pleased that there are now plans afoot to relaunch the Centre in a more modern and relevant format.

John is survived by his beloved wife Annemarie, who he met while he was engaged in writing up his PhD thesis in Edinburgh.