Dr Jonathan Holmes shares his memories upon reaching 50 years of teaching Veterinary Anatomy at PDN:
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"After demonstrating at ‘Into the Pelvis’, the last VAP dissection practical of the academic year, a few days ago, I have, bar a few supervisions, completed my 50th year teaching the subject in the Department.
I came up to Queens’ College to study to be a veterinary surgeon in 1967 and qualified from the Vet School in 1973. I stayed on, however, to complete a PhD (in oncology) and in the summer of 1976 I bumped into Donald Steven, my old Part 1B supervisor. He put me in touch with the legendary Dr Reg Green, de facto Head of the Sub-Department of Veterinary Anatomy (the Professors of Anatomy were de jure Heads), who asked if I could fill a gap demonstrating at dissection practicals, hinting that there might be a lectureship available at the end of the year, should my contributions prove satisfactory. So, in October 1976, I reported to the Dissecting Room clutching my old copy of Miller’s Dissection of the Dog to start demonstrating. A couple of colleges got me to supervise their students too.
I really enjoyed teaching and must have made a reasonable impression, so in 1977 I got the job and was duly appointed as a University Demonstrator (Assistant Lecturer) – I was upgraded to University Lecturer in 1982 - after an interview with Professor Harrison. I started lecturing extensively, of course, and started supervising for several more colleges. Lucy Cavendish and St Edmund’s made me Director of Studies for vets. I was, for a while, a teaching officer in charge of the Anatomy Animal House and the Anatomy Department rep on the University committee looking to advise on the replacement of the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act. I soon found myself a Tripos and 2ndVetMB examiner. I lectured, demonstrated and supervised (and still do) not only in what is now VAP, but also subjects now covered by Neurobiology and Animal Behaviour, Comparative Vertebrate Biology and Veterinary Reproductive Biology. In those days too, the vet lecturers were expected to demonstrate at and examine in non-topographical aspects of human anatomy, including embryology. I was one of the pre-clinical Syndics on the Veterinary School Syndicate (the forerunner of the Faculty Board). Meanwhile, I had always been heavily involved in the Chapel and the C.U. at Queens’ and was a local churchwarden, so in 1983 Queens’ offered me a Fellowship to be Lay Chaplain. In due course, they decided they wanted an ordained chaplain again but would like to keep me. I went through all the Church of England hoops and started as a student at Ridley Hall Theological College in 1987.
Even while I was a student at Ridley, I continued lecturing, demonstrating and supervising veterinary anatomy. I felt I had to resign as a UTO, but, after ordination and becoming full-time Chaplain of Queens’ in 1989, I was asked to continue teaching as much as I felt I could. With all my work as a chaplain, I had to give up research. However, I took on, in effect, the full teaching and examining duties of a UTO (though I was only paid per lecture, per practical and per exam). At one point, I was giving almost a third of all the lectures in Vet Anat.I found that being fully involved in the academic life of the University gave me great credibility when counselling students with academic problems. Also, teaching gave me a break from all the pastoral, administrative and ecclesiastical work in College. I have supervised over the years for almost all the colleges. I was 1B chair and twice 1A chair and did my fair share of examining. I served on the Department of Anatomy Committee for one of the early Quality Self-assessment Exercises. In 1994, Queens’ made me Dean of Chapel, as well as Chaplain, and I took on several other college jobs. I was at the same time Assistant Director of Studies for vets at Queens’ and also became Director of Studies at Clare, Trinity, Gonville and Caius and eventually Corpus Christi and Sidney Sussex too – a bit of an empire! I was Senior Proctor of the University 2013-14 and external examiner at the Dublin Vet School 2011-14.
In 2014 I retired from Queens’ (though I remain a Life Fellow and still have some administrative duties), but David Bainbridge again asked me to carry on demonstrating in veterinary anatomy. I stopped examining and lecturing (my lectures were by then, I guess, rather old-fashioned and not very high-tech, though I always got pretty good ratings from student assessment). Now, 12 years into ‘retirement’ I still demonstrate at usually two, sometimes three, occasionally four practicals a week and do some supervising (though that aspect of my teaching is slowly winding down). David B is keen that I carry on, and I have every intention of doing so, at least until I am 80 in 2029!"