Jack (Ginger) Powell, who has died at 101, was Europe’s longest-serving vet when he retired from practice after 75 years. Set in his ways when it came to cars, for the last 62 years he drove only Volkswagens, including the first Beetle in Nenagh in 1952 and bought a new one last year to celebrate his 100th birthday.
When they look back on their childhood days, anyone who grew up on a farm around Nenagh in north Tipperary will remember him as the vet who always had an alert Jack Russell terrier, Trudy or Trixy, perched on his shoulder when he drove into the yard to treat an animal.
Known in racing circles as a skilled equine vet, he had a great memory for pedigree and a special gift for dealing with difficult horses. A foal that he had bought for £400 went on to be a winner at the RDS Horse Show. Named Royal Frolic, he sold him to a British trainer and in 1976 he won in the Cheltenham Gold Cup by five lengths at odds of 14/1.
Born on the family farm at Blean, not far from the village of Toomevara in the foothills of the Silvermine Mountains, Powell went to the local national school, followed by a year in Ballymackey Church of Ireland Diocesan School. His second-level education was at a boarding school in Sligo and in 1932 he went to veterinary college in Dublin, graduating in 1936.
An extraordinary man by any standard, having milked his first cow at the age of five, he loved his job and had a genuine vocation for working with animals.
Still practising after 75 years, he finally retired in 2011, a milestone marked by then President Mary McAleese with the presentation of a gold medal award as Europe’s longest-serving vet, a record unlikely to be broken.
On qualifying in 1936, he went to England, taking up a post with the British ministry for agriculture. Involved with the first testing of animals for TB in 1938, he was also immersed in the 1937 foot-and-mouth epidemic.
Astonishingly, he was also a pilot with the Canadian Air Force, serving as a flying instructor during the second World War. In 1943, he married his wife, Sheila, and in 1947 they returned to set up his practice in Nenagh.
Looking back on the changing face of Ireland after a life which spanned the War of Independence, the Civil War and two World Wars, he recalled that land now fetching £20,000 an acre could be bought for as little as £10 an acre.
“We had no electric light, no television, no motor car. We walked to school, regardless of weather. We walked the cattle to the fair and so, of course, the standard of living now is vastly superior to what it was 50 or 60 years ago. Everyone has 4x4s, faxes, telephones, all mod cons. Rural Ireland as I knew it has gone. I’m still part of it and I enjoy living in it, but small farmers have gone the same way small shopkeepers will disappear. One has to accept that changes are inevitable.”
Predeceased by his wife, Sheila, Powell is survived by his sons Charles, John and Richard.