Arthur Wilfred Shilston, son of Thomas Shilton and his wife Elizabeth Anna, qualified as a veterinarian (MRCVS) at the Royal Veterinary College, London, in 1908. The next year he came to South Africa where he served from August 1909 as assistant government bacteriologist of Natal under H. Watkins-Pitchford* at the Allerton laboratory near Pietermaritzburg. In April 1912 he was appointed veterinary research officer in the newly formed Veterinary Department of the Union of South Africa, and that same year took over from Watkins-Pitchford as head of the Allerton laboratory. During his stay at Allerton he worked on trypanosomiasis in Zululand and on sheep scab. On the first of these topics he published "Notes on Zululand trypanosomes" in the Second Report of the Director of Veterinary Research (1912, pp. 345-361). On the second topic he published "Sheep Scab: Observations on the life history of Psoroptes communis var. Ovis, and some points connected with the epizootiology of the disease in South Africa" in the Third and Fourth Report of the Director of Veterinary Research (1915, pp. 69-98). An updated version of this paper, with the same title, appeared in the Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics (1916, Vol. 29, pp. 290-318). He served as honorary secretary and treasurer of the Natal Veterinary Medical Association from June 1911 to December 1913.

On 3 January 1914 Shilston left South Africa to visit England before taking up an appointment as assistant bacteriologist at the Imperial Bacteriological Laboratory at Muktsar, Punjab, India. During 1915-1916 he acted as Imperial bacteriologist. His work on rinderpest at Muktsar led to two publications: Rinderpest. Preparation of anti-serum (Calcutta, 1916, 18 pp) and The vitality of the rinderpest virus outside the animal body under natural conditions (Calcutta, 1917, 31 pp). He died from glanders while investigating an outbreak of the disease. The date of his death (whether in 1919 or 1920) is uncertain.

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.

Curson, H.H. The veterinary profession in South Africa... Journal of the South African Veterinary Medical Association, 1931, Vol. 2(2), pp. 95-101; 1932, Vol. 3(2), pp. 133-137.

Family Search. Arthur Wilfred Shilton. Retrieved on 5 April 2023 from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QLR2-KYD2

Google scholar. http://scholar.google.co.za/ , publications by A.W. Shilston.

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to Shilston, Arthur Wilfred / Shilston, A.W.

National Union Catalogue, pre-1956 imprints. London: Mansell, 1968-1980.

Posthumus, P.J. Past veterinarians in South Africa (10th edition), Vol. 2, [1992].

Union of South Africa. Public service list, 1914.

Union of South Africa, Department of Agriculture. Second Report of the Director of Veterinary Research, 1912, paper by A. Shilston.

Compiled by: D.W. Verwoerd

Last updated: 2023-04-06 11:02:06