Johan Godfried ("Boet") Bekker, veterinary scientist, was the son of Johannes Marthinus Bekker and his wife Hester Edith, born Schlemmer. He obtained a BSc (Agric) degree at the University of Stellenbosch in 1922 and his BVSc at the Veterinary Faculty of the University of Pretoria at Onderstepoort in 1925. He saw service at Onderstepoort and at Armoedsvlakte where he developed a special interest in mineral metabolism and especially the role of phosphate in the nutrition and health of livestock, which was also the subject of his DVSc thesis, On the administration of phosphorus to animals through their water supply (1931). His thesis project was published in the 18th Report of the Director of Veterinary Services and Animal Industry (1932).

In 1930 Bekker was sent to England to study problems related to wool production under professor Barker of Leeds University and Dr Crew at Edinburgh. On his return to Onderstepoort he was appointed as head of the newly established wool research unit, where he served until his death in 1960, though he also maintained a private practice. His work was published in about a dozen papers. He was married in Cape Town in 1927 to Maria Catharina Smith, with whom he had a son and a daughter. He was a man of cheerful disposition, but was in poor health during his last few years.

List of sources:

Author and Subject Index to the Government Veterinary Reports of the Transvaal and Union of South Africa (1903-1932). Pretoria: Department of Agriculture, June 1937.

Author and Subject Index to the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Science and Animal Industry (1933-1950) and the Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research (1951-1968). Pretoria: Department of Agriculture, June 1969.

[Doodsberig] Johan Godfried Bekker. https://journals.co.za/doi/pdf/10.10520/AJA00382809_848

FamilySearch. Johan Godfried Bekker. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/G7LW-81X/johan-godfried-bekker-1900-1960

National Archives Repository, Pretoria (TAB). Source MHG, Ref. 8481/60: Estate papers, Johan Godfried Bekker.

Posthumus, P.J. Past Veterinarians in South Africa, Vol. 1, 10th edition, [1992].

Compiled by: D.W. Verwoerd

Last updated: 2023-07-06 12:19:03