Joan Morice

Joan Alison Morice (5 October 1904 – 24 November 1944) was the first woman to qualify and practice as a veterinary surgeon in South Africa.[3][4] She graduated from Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, South Africa in 1927 and it was nineteen years later that the next woman, Maud Bales, qualified as a veterinary surgeon in South Africa.[5] Morice immediately started a private veterinary practice which lasted until 1935. She died at an early age from cancer in 1944.

Joan Alison Morice
Born(1904-10-05)5 October 1904
Barberton, Transvaal Colony
Died24 November 1944(1944-11-24) (aged 40)
Johannesburg, South Africa
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand
Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute
Known forFirst female South Africa veterinary surgeon
SpouseMaurice Connell Robinson[1]
Children1[2]
Scientific career
InstitutionsAllerton Laboratory

Life and career

Morice was born in 1904 in Barberton, Transvaal Colony to Andrew Morice and Alice Mary Morice (née Roberts). She was sent to England for her early education. In 1922 she returned to South Africa and enrolled in a veterinary surgery course. Morice completed the first two years of the degree at the University of the Witwatersrand and the last year at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute of the Transvaal University College.[6]

In 1927 Morice received her Bachelor of Veterinary Science[6] and worked at Onderstepoort and the Allerton Laboratory (in what was formerly Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal) as a temporary veterinary officer until December 1928, after which she started her own private practice in Johannesburg.[3][7][4]

Greyhound in a race

In 1930 she married Maurice Connell Robinson, who had also qualified as a vet in 1928, and they ran the practice together. They abandoned the practice in 1935 but Morice kept her appointment as the veterinary surgeon to the Johannesburg Greyhound Racing Club and the Rand Hunt Club.[8] Morice also did charitable work for the predecessor of the NSPCA and the Bantu Animal Welfare Association while her husband joined the municipal service of Johannesburg.[3][7][4]

Morice died in 1944 from lung cancer.[3][7]

See also
  • Aleen Cust – 1922, first female veterinary surgeon to be recognised by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, London.

References
  1. Bigalke, R.D. (2006). "Veterinary education in South Africa: The Classes of 1928 and 1929" (PDF). Journal of the South African Veterinary Association. 77 (4): 171–174. doi:10.4102/jsava.v77i4.372. PMID 17458339. Retrieved 6 May 2019. ... M C Robinson, who qualified in 1928, married Joan Morice, the first girl to study at the Onderstepoort faculty, who qualified in 1927.
  2. "Joan Alison (Morice) Robinson". FamilyTreeNow.com. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  3. Bigalke, R.D. "Article 4: Class of 1927" (PDF). VetHistory.co.za. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  4. PAST VETERINARIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA: Volume 2 (PDF) (10 ed.). p. 142. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  5. "Sabinet | Letters to the editor". Journal of the South African Veterinary Association. 37 (2). January 1966. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  6. "Joan Morice". South African History Online. 6 September 2011. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
  7. Bigalke, R.D. (September 2005). "Veterinary education in South Africa: the class of 1927". Journal of the South African Veterinary Association. 76 (3): 124–126. doi:10.4102/jsava.v76i3.412. PMID 16300178.
  8. Women Marching Into the 21st Century. HSRC publishers. 2000. p. 311. ISBN 9780796919663. Retrieved 6 May 2019.
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