Book: Forgotten Men
 

Forgotten Men: The Australian Army Veterinary Corps 1909 to 1946. by Michael Tyquin. Published in 2011 by Bigsky Publishing as part of the Australian Army History Unit publications series. ISBN 9780980814088.

Just completed reading up to the end of 1919 - which comprises the bulk of this book - and have to say it is an impressive piece of work. I now know a little more about the care and ultimate fate of the thousands of horses exported from Australia during the First World War, and the small group of veterinary officers, supported by a much larger number of NCOs and ORs, who kept the horses healthy as far as was possible. Tyquin goes into plenty of detail and has drawn upon a wide variety of sources to gather the facts for this book.

There are some minor annoyances, such as incorrect spelling of names ('Woods' is actually Capt Wood, and Capt Patterson is Capt Paterson) and just incorrect names, such as repeatedly calling Capt Stanley Fletcher 'Sydney Fletcher', Capt Ross Grant as 'Roderick' or 'Rod' Grant, and Capt William Shew as 'Bill Shaw'. I was especially disappointed that Tyquin referred to the death of Capt Ridley in July 1917 when he was KIA on 7 June (he gets the date right later in the book, but there is no excuse for getting dates of death wrong: they are available on line via the CWGC and AWM websites, and the personnel file is on line at the National Archives).

Overall, a really good survey of a little-known aspect of Australians during the First World War, but suffers just a very little from the errors mentioned above. I'm still recommending it, however, as a very worthy addition to any military history library.

Mike :salute: