Former RCVS President wins premier veterinary award

Mr Roger Eddy FRCVS of Shepton Mallet, Somerset, and former RCVS President has won the British Veterinary Association's premier award - the Dalrymple-Champneys Cup.

Mr Eddy was presented with the cup and medal - awarded for work of outstanding merit which it is considered will encourage the advancement of veterinary science - during the awards ceremony at the start of the BVA's annual congress in Edinburgh last week.

Presenting the award, the then BVA President Peter Jinman described Mr Eddy's lifetime work in cattle veterinary practice, his lecturing at UK veterinary schools, his extensive research and numerous publications, his consultancy to the pharmaceutical industry, to UK practitioners and to the veterinary profession in the Gambia, and his Fellowship of the RCVS and status as a Recognised Specialist in Cattle Health and Production. (Read full citation).

Mr Eddy paid tribute to the stimulation and encouragement he had received from many people within and outside the profession, particularly his dairy farming clients in Somerset who had for many years allowed him to trial various innovations, techniques and medicines on their farms.

He said, "I'm actually quite overwhelmed by this award...I've seen the list of its prestigious recipients in the past and just wonder how I can possibly match some of those people. It is a very great honour."

Sir Weldon Dalrymple-Champneys first presented the Dalrymple-Champneys Award at the BVA's Annual Congress in 1934 as a mark of the esteem in which he held the veterinary profession.

Award Citation - Roger Eddy

"Roger Eddy retired from farm animal practice in 1998. Over the years he has been a recognised teacher at the University of Bristol and a visiting lecturer at the Universities of Bristol and Liverpool and the University of Cambridge Veterinary School. He has been involved in far-reaching research throughout his career and his publications are too numerous to mention.

"He is now working as veterinary consultant to various pharmaceutical companies, to practitioners on a referral basis and has even visited the Gambia to advise on the privatisation of veterinary services. He is also a trained instructor for the Agriculture Training Board and a Member of the Institute of Agriculture Journalists.

"The main bulk of his professional time has been involved with cattle and, having been awarded the Fellowship of the RCVS in 1982 for the thesis 'Application and some Economic Implications of Fertility Control Programmes in Large Dairy Herds' he was recognised in 1992 as a specialist in Cattle Health and Production."