The Real James Herriot by Jim Wight

Author:Jim Wight [Wight, Jim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141916538
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2013-03-04T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

‘It was rather wonderful to have an assistant, especially a good one like him. I had always liked him, but when I got a call to a calving heifer at three o’clock in the morning and was able to pass it on to him and turn over and go back to sleep, I could feel the liking deepening into a warm affection.’

These words, written by James Herriot in his final book, Every Living Thing, will have a special significance for many veterinary surgeons who have experienced the dubious privilege of leaving a warm bed to drive out to a cold farm in the early hours.

The arrival of John Crooks heralded a whole new meaning to Alf Wight’s life. During his first ten years as a practising vet, he had had to be on call almost every night, and to be able to send someone else was a delightful and unbelievable experience. ‘For the first time in my life, I had someone working for me!’

John was not only a competent veterinary surgeon; he was a likeable man and was popular with the customers. For Alf, those years of the early 1950s were happy ones. He and John became great friends and an atmosphere of laughter and good humour pervaded the practice. It was a period of prosperity, with their profession undergoing massive change as agriculture prospered and farmers became more educated. From the veterinary surgeons’ side, high standards were expected – an ideal situation for a young, keen man like John Crooks.

John stayed in Thirsk for almost three years. He left in May 1954 to set up his own practice in Beverley, eventually achieving the distinction of becoming President of the British Veterinary Association in 1983. From his exalted position within the profession, however, he never forgot his humble beginnings in Thirsk, looking back on those days with Alf and Donald as some of the happiest of his life. His two employers gave him sound advice and tremendous support, so vital to a young person taking the first difficult steps in his chosen career. He felt so strongly about his time in Thirsk that when he left, he took with him a bottle of ‘air’ from 23 Kirkgate, hoping that it would infect his new practice with the refreshing and good-natured atmosphere he had enjoyed there.

John and his wife, Heather, remained great friends with the Wights, Alf becoming godfather to their first-born child, Annette. Many years later, when John became President of the BVA, he asked Alf to speak at the inaugural ceremony, at which Alf recalled his memories of John as t’yoong man’, as he was called by the farmers. That was when Alf Wight, no longer the youngest man in the practice, suddenly realised that he was getting older.

The luxury of having an assistant transformed Alf’s quality of life. Having savoured a taste of a more civilised existence, but still seeing his wife slaving in 23 Kirkgate, he became more determined than ever to get his family out of the big, cold house.

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