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Sir Thomas Dalling FRSE LLD (1892 – 1982) was a British veterinarian and bacteriologist. From 1948 to 1952 he held the office of Chief Veterinary Officer to the United Kingdom.
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Life
He was born on 23 April 1892 at 77 Howdenhall Road in Liberton, Edinburgh, a small cottage near the junction of the A701 and B701.
He was educated at George Heriot's School in Edinburgh then attended the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies graduating MRCVS in 1914. During the First World War he served in the Army Veterinary Corps in France with the rank of Major. He was Mentioned in Dispatches. On return he did further study at Cambridge University gaining an MA.
In 1923 he obtained a post at the Wellcome Foundation in London and remained there until 1937 when he was appointed Professor of Animal Pathology at Cambridge University. In 1938, together with Harry Steele-Bodger, he was one of the co-founders of the Society of Veterinary Practitioners. From 1942 to 1952 he was Director of the Veterinary Laboratories at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
In 1942 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. His proposers were John Russell Greig, James Ebenezer Wilson, William Smith Gordon, and Sir Thomas Oliver. From 1954 to 1958 he served as Secretary to the European Commission for the Control of Foot and Mouth Disease. He received multiple honorary degrees: LLD from Glasgow, Toronto and Edinburgh; DSc from Belfast and Bristol; and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) from the University of Hannover.
He died on 23 May 1982 aged 90, in the same house where he was born.
Artistic recognition
A photograph of Dalling by Walter Stoneman is held by the National Portrait Gallery in London.
His portrait was also painted by Josef Franz Strachota in 1956 and forms part of the University of Edinburgh art Collection.