Directors of Veterinary Services in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan: Frederick Ulysses Carr, 1908-1917 (Principal Veterinary Officer to 1910)

In the final 20 years of the 19th Century the Sudan was in turmoil. An indigenous religious uprising against the Egyptian rulers was eventually put down by the Egyptian and elements of the British Army in 1898. The capital, Khartoum, was captured and a condominium known as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was established. The country remained largely under military rule for many years. A Veterinary Service was installed mainly to provide health care to the enormous numbers of cavalry and transport animals (horses, mules, donkeys and camels) that the military required to govern and control the still turbulent population. Between the establishment of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan in 1901 and the achievement of independence by the Republic of Sudan on 1 January 1956 a total of 12 people served as Principal Veterinary Officers (to 1910) or as Directors of Veterinary Services (from 1910 to 1956). The early incumbents of the post were serving military officers seconded, usually for rather short periods, from the British Army Veterinary Corps to the Egyptian Army which in turn employed them directly or seconded them to the Sudan. Frederick Ulysses Carr was the fourth officer to head the veterinary services in Sudan and served for the longest time, almost ten years in all.