55FST had an excellent relationship with  “John the Vet”  and on occasion provided simple services for him such as radiography for animals like “Judy the Gibbon” whose owner was anxious as she had fallen sick.

The BATT veterinary officers ranged far and wide in Dhofar and came to know the pastoralists of the plain and the jebel extremely well.

I was talking to the grandfather of my wife’s neice’s husband, Robert Mares, who has since died but was an RAVC veterinary officer and as a result he passed on a report to me that had been written by Major GR Durrant who had been a BATT vet in Dhofar in 1971.

It is quite a long report but goes into detail about Dhofar, it’s animals and its people which makes interesting reading. It is a factual snapshot of life in Dhofar, away from the military, across the plain and up on the jebel.

I have presented it as a small non-searchable PDF file