Prior to this date, the management and care of army horses had been left to each individual regiment's Quartermaster, who (using government-contracted farriers) inspected animals on the march and saw to shoeing, stabling and other routine matters.

[1] Individual cavalry officers were expected to acquire a knowledge of 'the diseases which horses are subject to, and the medicines proper to be applied'.

[3] He was also contracted to supply 'Horse Medicines', and, as Principal of the College, was closely involved in the process of veterinary training and in keeping surgeons abreast of new developments.

[7] In the years that followed the terms of service of military veterinary surgeons was put on a sounder footing, and systems and regulations were drawn up for the performance of their duties.

[8] By the mid-1850s there were sixty-four serving veterinary surgeons, of whom forty-three went with their units to the war in Crimea; however, as with the other military support services involved, lack of co-ordination and proper facilities severely hampered their work and led to criticism.

[10] The Royal Horse Infirmary, Woolwich became the de facto headquarters of the Department: the Principal Veterinary Surgeon was based (and housed) there, and newly-commissioned officers attended there to receive instruction.

[1] In 1876, James Collins was appointed Principal Veterinary Surgeon; the role was now considered part of the War Office Staff, and he was based in Pall Mall rather than Woolwich.

Against veterinary advice, the decision was taken in 1898 to remove provision for sick and injured animals from the war establishment, and to merge provision of field veterinary hospitals with that of field remount depots, with the result that, in the Second Boer War, disease spread rapidly and unchecked: 326,000 horses and 51,000 mules died in the conflict, very few as a result of enemy action.

[13] Faced with stringent criticism, the government established a committee of inquiry to make recommendations as to the improvement of army veterinary services.

[17] At Aldershot the old infirmary stables were extended to form the new hospital, with new accommodation for sixty horses provided, plus an isolation ward and an operating theatre; it was completed in 1910.

[14] During the First World War almost half the veterinary surgeons in Britain served as officers in the AVC, and the number of other ranks in the Corps grew from 934 to 41,755.

As well as serving on the Western Front, the AVC was deployed with animals to such contrasting theatres of war as Gallipoli, Salonika, Mesopotamia and Palestine.

[12] At the time the Quartermaster-General wrote:The Corps by its initiative and scientific methods has placed military veterinary organisation on a higher plane.

That year the work of the Army Remount Service was taken over by the RAVC; in Italy, there was a high incidence of battle casualties among mules (used in large numbers for transport due to the difficult terrain) and the Corps was engaged in their procurement as well as their treatment.

The RAVC provides, trains and cares for mainly dogs and horses, but also tends to the various regimental mascots in the army, which range from goats to an antelope.

The Corps has subsidiary regiments: Sadie, a black labrador retriever belonging to 102 MWDSU and cared for by handler Lance Corporal Karen Yardley, won the PDSA Dickin Medal ("the animal's VC") in 2007.

[24] On 24 July 2008, Lance Corporal Kenneth Michael Rowe of the RAVC and attached to 2nd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment, was killed along with his search dog Sasha, during a contact with the Taliban in Helmand Province, Afghanistan.

It contains a plaque which reads: This school was founded through the representations of James Collins esq, Principal Veterinary Surgeon to the forces and Major General Sir Frederick Fitzwygram, Bart FRCVS commanding the Cavalry Brigade, Aldershot, 1st June 1880.