Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

www.elsevier.com/locate/tvjl

The Veterinary Journal 182 (2009) 139

TheVeterinary Journal

Obituaries of two former Editors

Professor Archie Laing and Dr. Brinley Morgan

The publishers, editors and Advisory Board of The Veteri-nary Journal have learned with sadness of the recent deaths oftwo past editors, Archie Laing and Brinley Morgan. We wouldlike to offer our condolences to their families and friends.

Professor John Archie Laing; Editor 1960–1984

The Veterinary Journal owes a lot to Professor ArchieLaing BSc, PhD, MRCVS, who has died at the age of 90.From 1960 to 1984 he was Editor of what was then calledthe British Veterinary Journal and successfully steered itthrough some difficult years in a solid partnership with thejournal’s long serving publisher, Aiden Reynolds of BailliereTindall. Through the efforts of this dynamic team, the reader-ship grew and the journal increased in stature achievingArchie’s objective of providing a balanced selection of sub-stantive papers on veterinary science. He realised that hewas editor in an age when specialism was rendering communi-cation more difficult and he wanted the journal to span a widefield by creating cross-linkages between specialist subjects.Under Archie’s leadership BVJ did this by publishing scientificpapers and reviews that were substantive and of high qualitybut intelligible to veterinarians as a whole – an objective thatcontinues today under the flag of TVJ. After he stepped downas editor, he became Chairman of the Editorial Board for afurther five years to 1989.

Archie Laing was Courtauld Professor of Animal Hus-bandry and Hygiene at the Royal Veterinary College, Univer-

doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2009.08.021

sity of London from 1959 to 1984. He graduated from theRoyal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies in 1941 and got aPhD at Cambridge under Sir John Hammond. He specialisedin animal reproduction during his academic career, and wrotewhat was to become a standard textbook, Fertility and Infer-tility in Domestic Animals. He was a consultant to FAO andUNESCO and served on many national and internationalcommittees. He was also appointed visiting professor at anumber of universities around the world, reflecting his trulyinternational outlook – an outlook that extended into the pol-icy he implemented at BVJ in ensuring it addressed the needsof a broad-based and worldwide readership.

Dr. Brinley Morgan; Editor 1988–1991

Dr. W.J. Brinley Morgan BVSc, DSc, PhD, DipBact,FRCVS, who was Editor of The British Veterinary Journalfrom 1988 to 1991, has died at the age of 83. Brinley qual-ified from Liverpool Veterinary School in 1949 and after ashort time in general practice he was awarded a trainingscholarship by the Animal Health Trust leading to adiploma in bacteriology at the University of Manchester.This was followed by a distinguished career in the UK Min-istry of Agriculture where his interest focused on diseases ofreproduction and bacteriology, with work on vibriosis andthen brucellosis in preparation for the introduction of anational eradication programme. In 1974, he was appointedAssistant Chief Veterinary Officer and Deputy Director ofthe Central Veterinary Laboratory with responsibility forthe licensing of veterinary medicines. He published widely,had a distinguished international reputation in the field ofbrucellosis, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Collegeof Veterinary Surgeons in 1990.

As a member of the Editorial Board of The BVJ for manyyears, Brinley stepped into the editor’s shoes following thesudden and untimely death in 1988 of the then editor, Profes-sor Jack Payne. Although he only saw this as a temporaryposition, his administrative ability and clear scientific brainmade their mark and for three years he ensured the Journalmaintained its position as one of the world’s foremost veteri-nary journals.

Andrew Higgins

Editor-in-Chief

E-mail address: tvj@aht.org.uk