Glasgow

Glasgow was a formative city in the life of James Herriot’s real-life counterpart, James Alfred Wight: it was where his family settled soon after his birth and where he trained as a veterinarian. Its place in his biography links the beginnings of his family life to the professional education that would take him onward to veterinary work in England.

Family and Early Life

Wight was born in Sunderland on October 3, 1916. Shortly afterward, his parents moved to Glasgow, where his father worked both as a shipbuilder and as a pianist in a local cinema. His mother was a seamstress and professional singer. The account establishes Glasgow as the family’s home after Wight’s birth, though it does not detail their daily life in the city.

At twelve, Wight adopted his first pet, an Irish setter named Don. The bond he formed with the dog awakened his interest in veterinary medicine, a connection that would lead from his early life to professional training. The biographical account does not specify where he was when he adopted Don, so the dog’s importance is personal and vocational rather than evidence of a particular Glasgow setting.

Veterinary Education and Departure

Wight matriculated at Glasgow Veterinary College in 1933. He played on the college football team while studying there, and qualified in 1939, at the age of twenty-three, as a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Glasgow was therefore not only his family’s adopted home but also the place where he received the formal training that prepared him for practice.

After graduating, Wight worked briefly in Sunderland, the city where he had been born, before moving to Thirsk in Yorkshire. That progression places Glasgow at an important transition in his biography: the city was the setting of his veterinary education, while his subsequent working life and settlement unfolded elsewhere.