| Description | Olga Uvarov (1910-2001) was a veterinary surgeon who in 1976 became the RCVS’s first female President.
Olga was born in Russia and was seven years old when the October Revolution began. Following the deaths of her parents she was rescued from the atrocities of war by the American Red Cross and her London-based uncle, the renowned entomologist Boris Uvarov. She spent the rest of her childhood with Boris in London and in 1934 graduated from the Royal Veterinary College. She initially joined the practice of Nevill King in Leatherhead, Surrey. During her time in Leatherhead, she additionally worked in association with the Ministry of Agriculture researching tuberculosis in cattle. After ten years in Leatherhead Olga set up her own practice in nearby Epsom.
In 1953 Olga sold her practice and began working for Glaxo Laboratories in West London. Much of her initial Glaxo work involved clinical research and the evaluation of medical products. She had various successes for the company and eventually rose to become Head of their Veterinary Advisory Department from 1967 until her retirement in 1970.
She was first published in 1935, when papers she co-authored with Nevill King appeared in the Veterinary Record. Throughout her career she was published in various journals and gave lectures on diverse subjects relating to drug use and the treatment of disease. Olga was first elected to the RCVS Council in 1968 and remained a committed Council member for almost twenty years. She became the first female President of the RCVS for the 1976/7 term. Other organisations who benefited from her experience were the Association of Veterinary Teachers and Research Workers (President 1967/8), the British Veterinary Association (Council member from 1975) and the Government’s Ministry of Agriculture Fisheries and Food (member of their Veterinary Products Committee from 1972).
Olga received many honours for her services to veterinary science including honorary fellowships from the RCVS (1973), the Royal Veterinary College (1979), the Royal Society of Medicine (1982) and the Institute of Biology (1983). Olga was awarded a CBE in 1978 and a damehood in 1983. In the mid-1980s she was invited to advise the House of Lords on proposed new legislation concerning welfare standards in laboratory animals, and in 1991 at the age of eighty-one was re-elected as vice president of the Institute of Animal Technology.
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