The thread about the “Dick Vet” and why its name is nothing to be giggled about
This thread was originally written and published in July 2023.
A Freudian slip where a taxi was mistakenly ordered for the “Small Dick Animal Hospital” instead of the “Royal Dick Small Animal Hospital” is not the first, and certainly won’t be the last, occasion where Edinburgh’s Dick Vet institution has found its name to be the source of some amusement.
The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, at the Easter Bush campus of Edinburgh University. CC-by-SA 3.0 Norrie Russell
This name goes back to William Dick, founder of the city’s first veterinary college, which he ran with his sister Mary Dick. Dick, a form of Dickson from the diminutive for Richard, is an old Scottish and northeast English family name going back to medieval times. Dick Place (no sniggering at the back) in the Grange is named for the landowning Lauder Dick baronets. Dick’s Close (I said stop it!) in the Cowgate was for the Dick family of brewers.
William and Mary Dick’s family came from Aberdeenshire, but they were born in the Canongate in White Horse Close at the tail end of the 18th century. Their father was a blacksmith and farrier, so they grew up around horses.
White Horse Close in the 1850s, by Thomas Keith 1827-95.
When William Dick was 22, the family moved from the Canongate to the New Town, at 15 Clyde Street.
Extract from the 1821-22 Post Office Directory for Edinburgh showing John Dick at 15 Clyde Street
William was studying anatomy at this time under John Barclay, having done well in his boyhood education. Barclay, satirised below in a John Kay caricature as trying to enter the University atop an elephant’s skeleton as its new anatomy professor, was the son of a farmer and specialised in comparative anatomy (i.e. the study of differences and similarities of anatomy between species). He was also a director of the Highland Society of Edinburgh (now the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland) and he influenced and supported William to pursue his boyhood interest in horses (from his father’s occupation) and head to London to study veterinary medicine.
“The Craft in Danger”. John Barclay attempts to unsuccessfully enter the University of Edinburgh as its new professor of anatomy on top of an elephant skeleton, opposed by his contemporaries.
That was 1817, and it took William only 3 months to complete his certificate in London. He returned to Edinburgh in 1818 and in 1819 set up a small vet school of his own in the family premises on Clyde Street. The Highland Society both sponsored the qualification and provided financial support and his sister ran the administrative side.
Professor William Dick, 1793 – 1866. Founder of the Dick Veterinary College. Watercolour by Elizabeth Olden. Cc-by-NC National Galleries Scotland.
By 1823, regular classes were being run, financed both by student fees and the Highland Society. The institution flourished and in 1830 it took on the name Edinburgh Veterinary College. Soon, larger, dedicated premises were needed and in 1833 it moved across the road on Clyde Street, to a purpose-built Vet School, largely financed by William himself. The grand pediment was crowned by a large statue of a horse. This building (and Clyde Street itself) was long ago demolished to make way for Edinburgh’s bus station.
Drawing of the Clyde Street College in 1877, from “Veterinary History”, vol. 17, no. 1. by Alistair A. Macdonald
In 1838, Dick became Veterinarian by Appointment to the Queen and the word “Royal” was added to the name of the college, with the royal coat of arms installed within the inner courtyard at Clyde Street. In 1840, Dick’s students wrote to the Highland Society requesting that he be made professor, and the readily agreed to this demand. William Dick died in 1866, with the college being run afterwards by his protégés. When one of the latter set up a rival institution, the “Royal” status of his college was questioned and his sister lobbied for it to be instead called the Dick Veterinary College.
Professor William Dick, veterinary surgeon, in later life. Wellcome Collection, 12638i
It was around this time that the institution locally began to be known as just the Dick Vet or The Dick. The trustees had the name altered to Dick’s Royal Veterinary College in 1876, and the following year it was rearranged to the Royal (Dick’s) Veterinary College. The apostrophe was lost 10 years later. In 1911, the awarding of degrees in Veterinary Medicine began under the umbrella of the University of Edinburgh. By now the school was out-growing its 80 year old premises at Clyde Street and the construction of new buildings on the site of the Summerhall commenced. The completion of these was delayed by the onset of WW1 and they were not entered into until 1916.
The (then) new “Dick Vet” at the Summerhall
The Dick Vet as an independent college ceased to be in 1951, when the University of Edinburgh (Royal (Dick) Veterinary College) Order Confirmation Act was passed, formally incorporating the college as a school within the university, now known as the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, a name it maintains to this day. A further move, out to the Easter Bush campus in Midlothian, took place in 2011. A stained glass window commemorating William Dick was removed from to the new location at this time. The former student bar at the Summerhall, now an arts venue of that name, is still called the Royal Dick.
Stained Glass window showing William Dick, removed from the Summerhall to Easter Bush in 2011.
The equestrian statue that once topped the 1833 vet school was relocated to the Summerhall site in 1916, and moved again in 2011. It is still in existence, having been placed outside the equine buildings at Easter Bush, and was renovated in 2019.
The 1833 equine statue at Easter Bush in 2020. Photograph from the
Dick Vet Equine Hospital.The site of the 1833 school is commemorated by a plaque at the bus station.
Plaque at Edinburgh Bus station commemorating the old Royal Dick veterinary college. CC-by-SA 2.0 Jim Barton
It was converted to a cinema – the St. Andrew Square Picture House – in 1923 and burned down in 1952. The fire gutted the building within 20 mins, not before the projectionists saved the precious lenses.
Fire destroys the St. Andrew Square cinema, converted from the old Dick Vet, in 1952
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