Brian Sinclair (veterinary surgeon)

23 Kirkgate, Thirsk, the former veterinary surgery of Sinclair, his brother Donald, and James "Alf" Wight (James Herriot)

Sinclair was born at Harrogate on 27 September 1915.[1] His father, James,[2] was the son of a crofter who had moved from the Isle of Sanday in the late 19th century.[3] James was said to have been a leather manufacturer but died when Sinclair was just two years old.[4]^: 109[3] Sinclair's elder sister, Elsa Vaughan,[5]^: 297 married Cyril Walter Russell on 5 June 1934 at St Robert's Catholic Church, Harrogate, where he gave her away.[6] In the 1920s, his elder brother, Donald, was a veterinary student at the Royal School of Veterinary Studies in the University of Edinburgh.[3]

In his youth, Sinclair had considered a career in dentistry, but his interest turned to veterinary medicine after assisting his cousin, then a local veterinarian,[3] with bovine tuberculosis testing.[7] In 1932, he entered the veterinary school at Edinburgh but failed his undergraduate examinations. His brother transferred him to Glasgow Veterinary College but he was expelled after laughing in Professor John William Emslie's pathology class.[7][8][lower-alpha 1] He finally passed his professional examinations at Edinburgh in December 1943,[9] and in the same month, he was admitted a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.[10] He worked for his brother while studying veterinary medicine, and after he graduated, he returned to his brother's practice at 23 Kirkgate in Thirsk, Yorkshire.[4]^: 213

On 23 March 1944, Sinclair enlisted in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps (RAVC) and was given the rank of lieutenant.[12] He had been a member of the Edinburgh college Officers' Training Corps (OTC).[13]^: 22 A month later, on 20 April 1944, he married Sheila Rose Seaton, the only daughter of Douglas Seaton, a general practitioner based in Leeds,[14]^: 956 at St Robert's in Harrogate.[2] Four months after the wedding,[7] he was deployed to the Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India.[15]

Sinclair was put in charge of the mules and camels used by troops in Burma. At the end of the war, he joined India's dairy programme,[11] supervising the care of seventy thousand water buffalo on military farms, and teaching pregnancy testing to local veterinarians. The closest he got to military action was when a local tribe fired shots into the camp using home-made rifles.[7] Alf Wight would write long letters to Sinclair, often twenty pages,[7] that would give news from home and would finish with a description of the Yorkshire countryside. Sinclair would later say that "Reading the [Herriot] books I find that the descriptions of the countryside are just the same as in those old letters."[16]

Making the rank of captain, Sinclair was demobilised in 1946.[17] On his return to England, he visited the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF) headquarters in Surrey in search of a job. He was offered a post at the ministry's Sterility Advisory unit at Church Street, Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands. He and his wife lived at 109 Culduthel Road, Inverness, and he travelled around Scotland advising farmers and crofters on livestock fertility. In 1950, the ministry offered him a transfer to the MAFF Veterinary Investigation Centre in Weetwood Lane, Leeds,[11] a diagnostic laboratory for veterinarians in Yorkshire.[7] He had enjoyed working and living in the Highlands, but decided to accept the transfer to his native Yorkshire, saying later, "I would never have accepted any transfer other than one to Yorkshire ... I loved the North and North-east that much."[11]

In 1953, Sinclair and Ken Sellers, a veterinary colleague at the centre,[18][lower-alpha 2] reported a cross-species infection of Salmonella typhimurium in shorthorn cows on a farm in Northumberland. The herd was milked in a shed that opened onto a duck house and a pigsty. The pigs, hens, and ducks were all found to be carrying Salmonella typhimurium, although none showed signs of infection. Sinclair and Sellers concluded that the poultry had caused the infection as they had only recently been introduced to the farm.[19]^{: 185–186} In 1959, he joined the joint MAFF Veterinary Laboratory Services and Public Health Laboratory Services committee on salmonellosis.[20]^{: 223–224} From 1965 until his retirement in 1977, he was the lead veterinary investigation officer for the centre.[7][lower-alpha 3]

From 1970 to 1974, Sinclair was the advisor to a veterinary clinical trial that attempted to eliminate scrapie from sheep by breeding out susceptibility to it. Scrapie can kill up to twenty-five percent of sheep in an infected flock and there is no known cure.[22] Six sheep farms, located in Yorkshire and Cumberland, were included in the trial. The farmers recorded the offspring of ewes and rams, and if they displayed symptoms of scrapie, then all affected sheep, including their relatives, would be culled from the flock.[23] The detailed recording and culling did have some success as at least one farm was able to declare itself free of scrapie by 1974.[22] Sinclair co-authored a number of papers on infections in cattle and sheep, such as Brucellosis and ringworm, but in general, he was not interested in academia. He considered that "having a sense of responsibility to the animal" is the most important value a veterinarian must have.[7]

Peter Davison who played Tristan Farnon in the 1978 BBC Television series All Creatures Great and Small

When Wight's first book was published, Sinclair was delighted to be captured as Tristan and remained enthusiastic about all Wight's books.[24] He had stated that the Herriot books and television shows were faithful to the truth, although occasionally, the truth was adapted for the purposes of the plot.[16] For example, in It Shouldn't Happen To a Vet there is an account of Sinclair letting a car run away and demolishing the local golf club hut. He read this and the next time he met Wight he said "'I don't remember doing that', and he said, 'You didn't it was me.' You see, it didn't fit James Herriot's image in the book, so he put it on to Tristan."[16]

In 2017, Alf Wight's son, Jim Wight, was interviewed and he discussed the James Herriot franchise. He made these comments about Sinclair:[25]

Brian [Sinclair] was accurately portrayed. A young man who was a delightful young fellow, but his whole aim in life was to work as little as possible and have as good a time as possible ... every time [Brian] failed his exams, which he did often when he was at veterinary school, Donald [Sinclair] had to pay and Donald didn't have money in those days ... So there was always that love-hate relationship between the two [brothers], very well portrayed in that first book.

The 1975 film All Creatures Great and Small was the first adaptation of Wight's semi-autobiographical novels of James Herriot. It was directed by Claude Whatham,[26]^: 615 and starred Simon Ward and Anthony Hopkins as James Herriot and Siegfried Farnon, with Brian Stirner taking the part of Tristan.[5]^: 294 At the time of filming, Stirner had played the lead role in Overlord, Stuart Cooper's 1975 film about the D-Day landings.[26]^: 615 From the first film onwards, Wight gave a percentage of his income from film and television rights to Sinclair and his brother.[4]^: 175 The sequel, It Shouldn't Happen to a Vet, premiered in 1976, but did not feature a Tristan character.[5]^: 299

Encouraged by the cinematic success of the films, the BBC commissioned a television adaption of All Creatures Great and Small. Christopher Timothy starred as Herriot, Robert Hardy as Siegfried, and Peter Davison as Tristan.[27] After the first rehearsal, Davison met Sinclair, and stated that meeting him "was useful because I'd worried about how to make my Tristan endearing even though he behaved appallingly."[28]^: 136 In return, Sinclair has said that he was "flattered that someone as tall and handsome as Peter Davison would play him on screen."[29][lower-alpha 4] The series premiered in 1978, and ended in 1980, when Herriot and Tristan were shown to leave Darrowby to join the war effort. A new series was commissioned in 1988, but Davison had other acting commitments, and was only able to make a few appearances as Tristan in that series.[27]

All Creatures Great and Small has been adapted for the stage by Simon Stallworthy. The play was first staged in 2010 at the Gala Theatre, Durham, with Jack Wharrier playing Tristan.[31] In 2014, a provincial tour of the play was produced by Bill Kenwright,[32] with Tristan being played by Lee Latchford-Evans.[33] Since 2020, a new television adaptation of All Creatures Great and Small has been produced by Playground Entertainment for Channel 5 in the United Kingdom, and PBS in the United States.[34] The series returned for its third run in 2022 with Callum Woodhouse playing Tristan in each series to date.[35]

In retirement, Sinclair joined an after-dinner speaking agency,[16][11] and was often invited to give speeches at farmers' functions in the north of England.[36] In 1979, he toured the United Kingdom giving talks to the Ladies' Circle and the Women's Institute,[37] on the subjects of Herriot and being a veterinary surgeon.[38] He was later paid to go on a cruise to speak on the same themes.[28]^: 151 In addition to these talks, he would host informal evenings for American tourist groups visiting "Herriot country",[39] on tours organised by Earl Peel. The tours would include lunch at the Kings Arms Hotel, Askrigg, where much of the television series of All Creatures Great and Small was filmed.[40]

Later in 1979, Sinclair embarked on a lecture tour of veterinary schools in the United States.[41] On 7 November 1979, he spoke to the student chapter of the Iowa American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) at the C. Y. Stephens Auditorium. The audience numbered over a thousand and he was presented with a replica statue of "The Gentle Doctor" for his contribution to veterinary medicine.[7][lower-alpha 5] Later in the same month, he spoke at the twelfth conference of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners. To mark the occasion, the governor of Texas signed a proclamation declaring him an honorary citizen of the state. The mayor of San Antonio also issued a proclamation naming him honorary alcalde (mayor) of the city.[43]

Sinclair was interviewed on 21 October 1980 by Sue MacGregor when Woman's Hour broadcast from Harrogate.[44] However, he had begun to lose weight, and was admitted to St James's University Hospital, Leeds, for tests. His condition worsened until a new consultant was appointed to aid with a diagnosis. It was thought he was suffering from a rare pituitary gland disorder, and consequently, a range of drugs were prescribed. His condition improved but he had to remain on steroids for the rest of his life.[5]^{: 329–330} He had been suffering from circulatory problems for some time and a visit to Australia had to be cancelled.[16][5]^: 344 He was also due to appear as the lead speaker at the centennial annual meeting of the New York State Veterinary Medical Society,[45] but he had a heart attack on 13 December 1988, and died at Leeds General Infirmary,[5]^: 344 aged 73 years.[46]

A requiem was held on 19 December 1988 at St Robert's, Harrogate,[46] attended by Sinclair's brother and Wight.[5]^: 344 Interment followed at Stonefall cemetery in Harrogate.[46] He and Wight had been life-long friends and had met almost every week in a bookshop at Harrogate.[5][lower-alpha 6] His death was an emotional blow to Wight and he would later say that "Brian [Sinclair] may have been a practical joker for most of his life ... but, beneath that hilarious veneer, was a sound and dependable man. A true friend in every sense of the word."[5]^: 344 His wife remained friends with the Wights, meeting them at Harrogate each week for tea.[4]^: 237 She died at Harrogate on 10 March 2001, aged 84 years, with her funeral also taking place at St Robert's on 16 March 2001.[48] They were survived by their three daughters, Anthea, Christine, and Diana.[46]

• Herriot, James (2006) [First published in 1973]. "Chapter 8". It Shouldn't Happen To a Vet. London: Pan Books. pp. 51–53. ISBN 978-0-3304-4346-3. OCLC 993228351. Retrieved 22 November 2022.
• Williams, Eric Idwal, ed. (January 1999). "12th World Association for Buiatrics Congress. Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 7 to 12 September 1982" (PDF). History of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) 1964–1998. Stillwater: American Association of Bovine Practitioners. 1: 71–74. doi:10.21423/bovine-vol0no0p71-74. ISSN 0524-1685. OCLC 263599151. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 22 November 2022. Includes photographs of the pre-convention tour to the Yorkshire Dales and Thirsk.

• Official website of The World of James Herriot museum.