Our image of the month shows two key participants at our Wellcome Witness Seminar on 'Foot and Mouth Disease: The 1967 outbreak and its aftermath': (l -r) Lord Plumb and Miss Mary Brancker. 

 

Henry Plumb (latterly Lord Plumb of Coleshill) was elected Vice-President of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) in 1964 and was President from 1970 to 1979. He was first elected to the European Parliament (EP) in 1979 and remained a member until his retirement in 1999. He has chaired the European Union Committee of Agriculture (1979–82) and the European Democratic Group (1982–87) and was President of the European Parliament (1987–89), Vice-President of the European People’s Party (EPP) from 1994 to 1997, and Co-President of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Countries (ACP)–EU Joint Assembly from 1994 to 1999.

 

Miss Mary Brancker CBE FRCVS was President of the British Veterinary Association (BVA) at the time of the 1967–68 FMD outbreak. She collaborated closely with both MAFF and the National Farmers’ Union. Following the outbreak she chaired the BVA committee that gave evidence to the Northumberland Committee Parliament in 2001.

 

The transcript of 'Foot and Mouth Disease: The 1967 outbreak and its aftermath' is available here.