My Brother Ted

I feel lucky to be alive at ninety two particularly because my brother Ted who was five years younger than me died of cancer in 2000.  Ted was a brilliant student and after his first two years at the secondary school in Letterkenny I advised him to join me in Dublin where I was in the middle of the veterinary course.  I got him enrolled at Caffrey's  cramming college in St Stephens Green where I felt he could pass the Matric in '43 and start on the veterinary course.  He would thus avoid the last three years at St. Eunans and be qualified earlier. 

Ted got medals in several subjects and qualified as a vet in '48.  A week later he got his first job as an assistant to Reid Marshall in Coleraine.  After a few months he was anxious to join me in Britain.  I got him a job in a horse practice with a famous Yorkshire Vet called Dick Hayes at Sherburn in Elmet.  Dick had graduated in London in 1903. After two years Ted moved south to assist Colm Mackenzie in a small animal practice at Rayleigh, Essex. 

In '51 he joined Jane and me for a weekend in Rugby.  We told him that we had longed to go to New Zealand when we married but our parents were unhappy about us going so far away.  Some time later Ted wrote that he had applied for a job there. Then one day we got a letter with a New Zealand stamp!  He had signed a contract with a group of farmers in the Mataura Valley near Edendale to attend to their cattle and sheep for three years.  In January '54 he sailed from Wellington to Sydney.  He got a job in Victoria with a vet called Greg Mallinson in a polo pony stud.  Then he bought an old banger intending to take short term jobs in different practises so as to see a bit of the big country.  Then he spent two months on a drive to visit Alice Springs and Ayres Rock.  Finally he did locums for Ray Chatham at Cohuna and Hogarth Scott at Dandenong.  Then one evening at Christmas '54 without warning he arrived with us in Rugby.  I introduced him to my friend Dr. Geoffrey Brook at Leamington Spa.  They were two of a special kind.  Geoffrey had been some time in Sweden working on the development of spinal anaesthesia and Ted

spent a fortnight with him using it instead of a general anaesthetic for procedures on a variety of animals.  Then he did locums for Claud Noble in Birmingham, Donal Underwood at Bramley, Davy Crooks at Cheadle, Hugh Frost at Sleaford, Maurice Rand at the Royal Stud at Hampton Court and  Dennis Heeley at Lewes. When he fancied getting experience of practice in Ireland  in '56  I told him of a vacancy with a Vet in Tipperary called Jack Powell who had qualified nine years before me -- in 1936.   The best known patient treated by Mr Powell while Ted was there was the greyhound Prince of Bermuda trained by Malacky McKenna and his son Ger.   After winning the McAlinden Cup in record time this dog won a match race against Duet Leader and Northern King at White City in London before a crowd of 25,000.

Because there was little demand for the services of vets in Ireland before the war Jack Powell came to Britain and joined a well established vet called Charles Townsend at Long Stanton.   When there was an outbreak of Foot & Mouth disease he joined the Ministry and earned £2 a day.  When war broke out Jack joined the RAF and was trained to be a pilot.  His dear wife Shelia became a driver of army vehicles in Northern Ireland.

On my visits to the annual coursing festival at Clonmel I always looked forward to meeting Jack.  The first thing he used to say to me was " How is Ted ?, I never had a better assistant. "  I telephoned Jack this morning  to congratulate him and to wish him a happy hundredth birthday. 

This is Ted on his final visit to Drumnatinney Strand in front of the Ray River

 with Horn Head away in the distance three months before his death in 2000.

With his Ph.D and Diploma in Bacteriology Ted was destined to spend the rest of his life in the laboratory.  After a few years at Weybridge his wife Pauline wanted to return to her native Dublin so Ted applied for a transfer to the Abbotstown laboratory where they were both happy.  At weekends he often spent a few hours studying the animals in the zoo in the company of his beloved children, Paul, Yvonne and Karen.  They also had a great deal of pleasure watching the deer in the Phoenix Park especially when after the fawns were born.  For a change he liked nothing better than a visit to the stables to Jim and Jackie Bolger.  After they moved to Carlow Ted occasionally continued to enjoy this great pleasure until he was struck by Cancer at the age of 74.