Prof. Frank Jordan MBE
1917 – 2015
Prof Frank Jordan was a prominent poultry veterinarian and academic, born in Newport, South Wales in 1917 and always proud of his Welsh heritage.
He qualified in 1941 from the Royal Veterinary College, London, having actually spent the last two years of his training in Berkshire, due to the blitz. There were few jobs in veterinary practice at that time, so Frank worked as a farm labourer until he found employment in a mixed practice in York.
Here he gained useful experience, but soon volunteered for military service and became a captain in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, which took him to Burma. His unusual duties included “muting” the noisy mules that were used as vital pack animals for guerrilla warfare behind enemy lines.
After his war service, Frank worked in a mixed veterinary practice until 1949, when he became an assistant veterinary investigation officer at the Ministry of Agriculture’s facility in Aberystwyth. Here he became particularly interested in poultry diseases, but somewhat frustrated at not being able to follow-up investigations to define the causes.
After joining the University of Liverpool Veterinary School in 1952 as a lecturer, he was able to initiate his own research at Leahurst campus. He was awarded his PhD in 1954 and became a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in 1955.
In the early days at Liverpool, Frank was one of the few academics who considered poultry diseases to be worthy of study and research. Alone, Frank obtained funding from the then Agricultural Research Council and the British Egg Marketing Board to establish a dedicated research laboratory, plus a team of research staff, at Leahurst in 1966.
Having gained his own Doctor of Science award (in 1970), he then established a one-year Master of Veterinary Science course in avian medicine, to train veterinarians from all over the world in poultry diseases. It ran for 11 years.
Frank’s main research interests were in poultry respiratory diseases. Together with his colleagues, the research output of the group numbered more than 500 publications and put the university on the world map in terms of poultry disease research.
He was an inspiring teacher, never happier than being with students in a chicken house or in the post-mortem room. He also edited several editions of the classic text Poultry Diseases, which enhanced his international fame.
Formal roles included being president of the British Veterinary Poultry Association, president of the Association of Veterinary Teachers and Research Workers, chairman of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons
Poultry Specialisation Board, and an advisor to the World Health Organisation.
Even after retirement in 1985, Frank went on to co-author at least 18 publications.
In recognition of his achievements, in 1983 Frank was elected an honorary life member of the World Veterinary Poultry Association, and awarded the Gordon Memorial Trust Lecture and Medal in 1985 “in recognition of distinguished contributions to poultry science”.
In the same year he was elected as a life member of the British Veterinary Poultry Association and, in 1993, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in recognition of his “services to veterinary medicine”.
Frank’s colleagues, students and friends confirmed him as a kind, interesting, interested, generous, amusing, modest and very knowledgeable colleague, but never a “know-all”.
Frank passed away in 2015 at the age of 97, when his coffin was beautifully and appropriately decorated with images of chickens.