Marcus James STEVENSON

Captain Marcus James Stevenson MRCVS was born in Tipperary, Ireland, in 1866. He graduated from Glasgow University in 1888.

Stevenson practised as a veterinary surgeon in London for about a quarter of a century, and his skill in treating animals was appreciated among all classes of society. He was a familiar figure at the Highgate Police Court, as he was invariably called by the police authorities to give evidence in cruelty cases.

Stevenson won the International Leaping Contest, held at Rouen in 1892, and thus earned the title of champion jumper of the world. Mounted on a horse called Tasmania, he defeated twenty-five of the best-known English, French, Spanish and American horses. He took first prize of £1,000.

He served in the Boer War in the Boer War, offered his services at the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, and immediately went to France with the Army Veterinary Corps.

He was home the following month, having been injured during a stampede of horses, and on his recovery, he returned to the Front. He was not back in England again till March, and a fortnight after his return, he was transferred to Egypt.

Stevenson died from wounds received to the head. He died in hospital and is buried in Cairo War Memorial Cemetery beneath a standard Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone, listing him as a Lieutenant in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps.

Captain Stevenson’s obituary appeared in The Veterinary Record on 18 September 1915. His obituary notice in the Veterinary Journal noted that:

“Captain M. Stevenson was one of the best-known veterinary surgeons in North London.”