Born: 7 July, 1919, in Altnaharra, Sutherland. Died: 20 March, 2008, in Dunbartonshire, aged 88. IAN McIntyre, CBE, PhD, FRCVS, was a respected veterinary surgeon whose academic work in Scotland was mostly carried out in Glasgow
, but he also built up an enviable international reputation with his pioneering work in Africa, especially in the Gambia. There he is remembered for his work at the Banjul Centre. McIntyre also did valuable research in Kenya and east Africa.
One of his proudest moments came at a symposium in 2004 held at the International Trypanotolerance Centre (ITC) in Banjul. A warm tribute was paid to McIntyre by the president of the centre on behalf of the Gambian people, and the laboratory complex at Kerr Serign was named after him.
William Ian Mackay McIntyre was the son of a gamekeeper on the Kimball estate in Sutherland. Out with his father on the moors, he established a deep love of, and interest in, animals.
He attended school in Golspie but an accident interrupted his education and, after his father died, it was the generosity of the estate owner that made it possible for McIntyre to study veterinary surgery.
He graduated from the Royal Dick College in Edinburgh in 1944, then took up a research post there. He wrote his PhD at Edinburgh University on the research he had carried out into canine bacterial infections.
In 1951 he was offered a post at the Glasgow Veterinary School and greatly broadened the establishment's research and teaching methods. McIntyre carried out extensive clinical trials on treatment of a lung disease in cows. He carried out final trials of the vaccine on cattle at 200 farms in Scotland, and it was put on the market under the trade name Dictol. It is still available today.
In 1963 McIntyre (who was created a professor of veterinary medicine two years earlier) was sent with a group of Glasgow colleagues to inaugurate a school of veterinary surgery at the University of Nairobi. All McIntyre's powers of diplomacy were required to iron out some internal academic factions, but when President Jomo Kenyatta opened the faculty in 1966 it was a credit to McIntyre's initiative and scholarship. He had also become an authority on many of the lesser-known African diseases that can blight the farms of the area.
McIntyre returned to Glasgow in the early 1970s, where he concentrated on improving the facilities of the veterinary college and upgrading its technological expertise. But his love and knowledge of Africa and its animals ensured he often returned to the continent as a consultant on various projects.
The then president of the Gambia, Sir Dawda Jawarra (a former veterinary student at Glasgow), asked McIntyre to write a report on an infestation in the herds of cattle. By 1980 three research laboratories had been built and these led to the ITC being opened in 1982. When McIntyre retired from Glasgow University in 1983 he became the centre's first director.
His work there embraced many aspects of animal welfare. McIntyre was keen to promote various other invaluable facilities which would improve the standard of the animals. He was keen to preserve food for winter feeding (which meant building long-term storage depots) and encouraged the improvement of appropriate cow nutrition. The education and advice McIntyre passed on to his students and the Gambia's politicians have been greatly praised.
McIntyre was a keen rally driver and often competed with his colleague Bill Martin in events around Scotland and, notably, in three gruelling east African safari rallies (1964-66) in a Mini Cooper S.
Back in Scotland he enjoyed sailing on the Clyde – his son Mike won a gold at the Seoul Olympics in 1988, which gave him great pleasure. He spent a contented retirement on the shores of the Gareloch, gardening and exploring the Highlands – an area that never ceased to fascinate him.
McIntyre was the first dean of Glasgow's veterinary school (1974-77), chaired the education committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and was awarded a CBE in 1989. His first wife, Ruth (who was associated with the mathematics department at Glasgow University), died last year. He is survived by their three sons and his wife.
The full article contains 708 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
