1928 - 1969

Dr Norman Wright was appointed the first permanent director of the Institute in 1930 and saw three projects as top priority:

  • an investigation into the incidence of tuberculosis in dairy herds and the percentage of reacting cows giving tuberculosis milk
  • a joint investigation with the Edinburgh Royal Veterinary College on milk fever and allied diseases
  • studies on the physiology of milk secretion

Scientists at the Hannah were soon at the forefront of convincing a dubious British public of the merits of milk pasteurization.

In the mid 1930s, the County of Ayr was declared the first bovine tuberculosis-free area in the country following collaboration between Institute scientists and the local authority veterinary staff. It was another twenty years before the whole country would be rid of the disease following the introduction of the Area Eradication Plan based on the principles established by the Institute twenty years before.

Institute studies in the production and utilisation of grass contributed to an 80% increase in productivity of British grassland from the 1930s.

The war years saw the Institute’s effort being channeled towards investigations into farm self-sufficiency, protein substitutes for dairy cows, bovine mastitis and the preparation and storage of dried milk. Research was also undertaken on the bacteriology of evaporated and sweetened condensed milks and on problems related to canned cream.

During the war dehydration of foods, including vegetables, fish and milk, became increasingly important and in 1943 the Institute was chosen to stage a demonstration to illustrate the value of modern methods of dehydration and their possible applications in the food industry.

In 1950 Dr Wright, who had been seconded several times for special service overseas, was appointed Chief Scientific Adviser to the Ministry of Food, later becoming Deputy Director-General of the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation. He was knighted in 1963.


Dr J.A.B. Smith succeeded Dr Wright as Director of the Institute in 1950 and there followed a most rewarding period for the Institute, during which its considerable reputation was enhanced and international recognition obtained for the work of many of its scientists:

The Institute’s Dr Waite had become an established authority on dried milk and, in 1955, on the invitation of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, he spent two months in India advising on a programme of research on the manufacture of invalid and infant foods. In 1960 he was invited to spend six weeks in Australia to advise the NSW Milk Board on problems associated with the SNF (solids-not-fat) content of milk during which time he undertook an extensive programme of lecturing and broadcasting which was much appreciated by members of the dairy industry in that country.

Dr K. L. Blaxter established an international reputation as a leading authority on the energy metabolism of farm animals and in 1960 was awarded the Thomas Baxter Prize for his research on the nutrition of dairy cattle. This was followed by the Research Medal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England in recognition of his contribution to knowledge of the metabolism and nutrition of farm animals.

Dr J.D. Findlay, who had played a major role in developing the Institute’s physiology department, was a recognized authority on the environmental physiology of cattle and was appointed a member of the MRC Committee on Climatic Physiology. In 1961 he was invited by the UN Special Fund (New York) to evaluate a request from Peru for assistance in establishing a tropical and high-altitude veterinary institute.