The son of a veterinary surgeon, James Roland Rider was born in N.E.England in 1894. He was educated at St. Bees, Cumbria, and at Newcastle Royal Grammar School. In 1912 he went to Edinburgh to study at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College but in 1914 the outbreak of war interrupted his studies. Rider enlisted in the Scots Greys and he served at Gallipoli. In 1916 he returned to the Dick Vet', and graduated with the MRCVS in 1917. He then re-enlisted, serving as a Captain in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps until the end of the Great War.
From 1919 he was employed as a vet by Pease and Partners Ltd. owners of several mines in the coalfields of Durham and Teeside. In 1928 he declined the offer of a Lectureship at the Royal (Dick) Veterinary College, only to suffer a cut in working hours the following year due to the Depression which began in 1929. In 1930 however, Rider began his own private practice in Darlington.
In 1932 he published a paper on 'Hypertrophy and diverticulae in the ileum in pit ponies' for the Veterinary record, British Veterinary Association.
James Roland Rider died of pulmonary tuberculosis on 19 November 1942.
From the guide to the Medals of James Roland Rider (1894-1942), Veterinary Surgeon, 1913-1918, (Edinburgh University Library)
