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'{{Infobox person |name = Aleen Cust |image = Aleen Cust portrait.jpg |caption = |birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1868|02|07}} |birth_place = [[County Tipperary]], Ireland |birth_name = Aleen Isobel Cust |death_date = {{death date and age|1937|01|29|1868|02|07|df=y}} |death_place = [[Jamaica]] |other_names = |known_for = First woman veterinary surgeon in Great Britain or Ireland |occupation = [[Veterinary surgeon]] |nationality = MAH BALLS IF YOU SEE DIS TYPE IN HI IM INSERT NAME HERE }} '''Aleen Isobel Cust''' (7 February 1868 – 29 January 1937) was an [[Anglo-Irish]] veterinary surgeon. She was born and began her career in [[Ireland]]. In 1922 she became the first female veterinary surgeon to be recognised by the [[Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite web|last1=Hall|first1=Sherwin A.|title=Cust, Aleen Isabel (1868–1937)|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/index/56/101056033/|website=Oxford Dictionary of National Biography|publisher=Oxford University Press|accessdate=8 February 2015}}</ref><ref name="Dictionary">{{Cite book |ISBN=978-1414418612 |title= Dictionary of Women Worldwide: 25,000 Women Through the Ages |section=Cust, Aleen (1868–1937) |url-access=subscription |via=[[HighBeam Research]] |accessdate= 4 June 2015 |date= 1 January 2007 |url= http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588818896.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20150924170209/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G2-2588818896.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 24 September 2015 }}</ref> == Early life and education == Aleen Cust was born in 1868 in [[Cordangan Manor]], [[County Tipperary]]. Her father [[Cust baronets|Sir Leopold Cust, 2nd Baronet]] was the grandson of [[Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow]], and worked as a land agent to the Smith-Barry family.<ref name="Ask About Ireland">{{cite web|last1=Ask About Ireland|title=Aleen Cust (1868–1937)|url=http://www.askaboutireland.ie/reading-room/life-society/science-technology/irish-scientists/aleen-cust-%281868-1937%29/|website=Ask About Ireland|accessdate=8 February 2015}}</ref> Her mother Charlotte Sobieske Isabel (née Bridgeman) was the daughter of Vice-Admiral [[Charles Orlando Bridgeman]], and granddaughter of [[Orlando Bridgeman, 1st Earl of Bradford]] and [[Sir Henry Chamberlain, 1st Baronet]].<ref name=ODNB /> The fourth of six children,<ref name="Hidden Gems">{{cite web|last1=County Roscommon Archaeological and Historical Society|title=Hidden gems and Forgotten People: Aleen Cust (1868–1937)|url=http://www.hidden-gems.eu/roscommon-cust.pdf|website=Hidden Gems|publisher=Hidden Gems|accessdate=8 February 2015}}</ref> she enjoyed the outdoors as a child, and when asked about her future she claimed "a vet was my reply ever and always."<ref name=Lewis-Stempel>{{cite book|last1=Lewis-Stempel|first1=John|title=Young James Herriot: The Making of the World's Most Famous Vet|date=2012|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4464-1622-8|pages=159–163}}</ref> She began training as a nurse at [[London Hospital]], but gave it up to become a veterinary surgeon.<ref name="ODNB" /> Following the death of her father in 1878, Major Shallcross Fitzherbert Widdington, her guardian, encouraged her to pursue an education and funded her attendance at [[William Williams (veterinarian)|William Williams]]'s [[Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies|New Veterinary College]] in Edinburgh.<ref name=Vincent>{{cite web|last1=Vincent |first1=Nicky |title=History of Women Veterinarians |url=http://www.vetsonline.com/publications/veterinary-times/archives/n-43-32/history-of-women-veterinarians.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150210062450/http://www.vetsonline.com/publications/veterinary-times/archives/n-43-32/history-of-women-veterinarians.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=10 February 2015 |website=Vets Online |accessdate=8 February 2015 }}</ref><ref name="Dictionary"/> As her mother was acting as a [[Woman of the Bedchamber]] to [[Queen Victoria]],<ref name=Haines>{{cite book|last1=Haines|first1=Catharine M.C.|title=International Women in Science: A Biographical Dictionary to 1950|date=2001|publisher=ABC-CLIO|location=Oxford|isbn=978-1-57607-090-1|pages=79–80|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/internationalwom00hain}}</ref> Cust enrolled under the name A.I. Custance to avoid any embarrassment for her family.<ref name=Haines /> She completed her veterinary studies in 1897, winning the gold medal for zoology,<ref name=Haines /> but was denied permission to sit the final examination and consequently was not admitted as a member of [[Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons]] (RCVS).<ref name=Vincent /> She challenged this in the [[Court of Session]], seeking to overturn the decision of the RCVS examination committee, but the court declined to rule on the basis that the RCVS was not domiciled in Scotland.<ref name=Haines /> She refrained from legal action in London, perhaps due to the potential cost, or potential social embarrassment to her mother.<ref name=Lewis-Stempel /> == Career == Cust nevertheless went on to practise in [[County Roscommon]] with William Augustine Byrne MRCVS,<ref name="Ask About Ireland" /> having received a personal recommendation from [[William Williams (veterinarian)|William Williams]],<ref name=Vincent /> and lived at Castlestrange House (location of the [[Castlestrange stone]], in the [[River Suck|Suck Valley]]) near [[Athleague]].<ref name="Hidden Gems" /> The ''[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]'' states that there is reason to believe that Byrne and Cust "lived as man and wife and that she had two daughters, born in Scotland, who were later adopted".<ref name="ODNB" /> In 1904 she was briefly engaged to Bertram Widdington, the son of her former guardian, but following objections from his family regarding her career, the wedding did not go ahead.<ref name="O'Connell">{{cite book|last1=O'Connell|first1=Claire|editor1-last=Mulvihill|editor1-first=Mary|title=Lab Coats and Lace|date=2009|publisher=WITS|location=Dublin|isbn=978-0-9531953-1-2|pages=37–41|chapter=First in Their Field}}</ref> Cust was later appointed as a veterinary inspector by [[Galway County Council]] under the [[Diseases of Animals Acts]]<!--1894 to 1903-->, an appointment that was denied by the RCVS due to her lack of professional recognition.<ref name=Vincent /> The post was advertised again, and when Cust was again selected for the post an agreement was reached under which she carried out the duties of the position with an amended title.<ref name=Vincent /> Upon the death of Byrne in 1910, Cust took over the veterinary practice.<ref name="Hidden Gems" /> She practised from Fort Lyster House near Athleague.<ref>[http://landedestates.nuigalway.ie/LandedEstates/jsp/property-show.jsp?id=1254 House: Fort William/Fort Lyster], Landed Estates Database</ref> (Both Castlestrange and Fort Lyster were later demolished.<ref>[http://www.roscommonpeople.ie/itemdetail.asp?itemID=10495 Our cultural revolution: A lament for reason] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150402101230/http://www.roscommonpeople.ie/itemdetail.asp?itemID=10495 |date=2015-04-02 }}, Roscommon People</ref>) Upon the outbreak of the [[World War I|First World War]] in 1915, Cust left Ireland to volunteer at the front and appears to have aided in the treatment and care of horses,<ref name=Vincent /><ref name="Hidden Gems" /> working with the [[YMCA]] from a base near [[Abbeville]].<ref name=Haines /> In 1917 she was appointed to an army bacteriology laboratory which was associated with a veterinary hospital.<ref name="Scott Nolen" /> She is listed as a member of the [[Queen Mary's Army Auxiliary Corps]] from January to November 1918 and it has been suggested that it was her war time work that aided in her acceptance into the RCVS after the war.<ref name="Scott Nolen" /> The [[Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons]] in London did not recognise Cust's right to practice in her own right in Britain until 1922,<ref>{{cite book |author=Nicholson, Virginia |title=Singled Out |year=2007 |publisher=Viking |isbn=0-670-91564-5 |page=242}}</ref> following the enactment of the [[Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Goodwin|first1=Charlie|title=50 Years a Country Veterinarian|date=1983|publisher=Mika Publishing|location=Belleville Ontario|pages=21–22}}</ref><ref name="Ask About Ireland" /><ref name="Dictionary"/> Given her years of experience, she was only asked to take the oral part of the final examination.<ref name="ODNB" /> On 21 December 1922, the president of the RCVS, Henry Sumner, personally presented Cust with her diploma, and she thus became the first woman to be awarded such a diploma.<ref name="Scott Nolen">{{cite web|last1=Scott Nolen|first1=R.|title=Britain's first woman veterinarian|url=https://www.avma.org/News/JAVMANews/Pages/110601v.aspx|website=American Veterinary Medical Association|accessdate=8 February 2015}}</ref><ref>"The First Woman Veterinary Surgeon", ''The British Medical Journal'', Vol. 2, No. 3234 (Dec. 23, 1922) , p. 1236; https://www.jstor.org/stable/20422053</ref><ref name="Dictionary"/> == Later life and recognition == Due to failing health, Cust only continued to practice as a veterinarian for another two years, retiring in 1924.<ref name=Vincent /> Having sold her practice, she moved to the village of [[Plaitford]], in the [[New Forest]] in [[Hampshire]], England.<ref name="Hidden Gems" /> She died of heart failure<ref name="Hidden Gems" /> in Jamaica on 29 January 1937 whilst visiting friends.<ref name=Vincent /> Upon her death she left the RCVS a sum of money to found the Aleen Cust Research Scholarship.<ref name=Haines /><ref name="Dictionary"/> In 2007 a plaque was erected in honour of Cust at Castlestrange House, Athleague by Women in Technology and Science and the National Committee for Commemorative Plaques in Science and Engineering, with support from Veterinary Ireland.<ref name="O'Connell" /> == See also == *[[Joan Morice]] - First female South African veterinary surgeon. == References == {{Reflist|30em}} == Further reading == * Ford, Connie M. (1990). "Aleen Cust, Veterinary Surgeon – Britain's First Woman Vet". Biopress. {{ISBN|0-948737-11-5}} * Ó hÓgartaigh, Margaret (2006). 'Female Veterinary Surgeons in Ireland, 1900-30', ''Irish Veterinary Journal'', '''59''': pp.&nbsp;388–389. {{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cust, Aileen}} [[Category:1868 births]] [[Category:1937 deaths]] [[Category:19th-century Irish women]] [[Category:19th-century Irish people]] [[Category:People from County Roscommon]] [[Category:People from County Tipperary]] [[Category:Irish veterinarians]] [[Category:Irish people of World War I]] [[Category:Women veterinarians]] [[Category:20th-century Irish people]] [[Category:20th-century Irish women]] [[Category:Cust family|Aleen]]'