This award is for a qualified veterinarian who has made an outstanding contribution to the welfare of companion animals in its widest context.
2026 Winner
Jon Fitzmaurice BVetMed MRCVS
The J.A. Wight Memorial Award goes to Jon Fitzmaurice for his unwavering dedication over more than 10 years at the RSPCA in South Wales. Throughout this time, he has improved the lives of countless pets, and in doing so, supporting the wellbeing of their owners. As a Practice Manager in Merthyr Tydfil, Jon has spent recent years focusing exclusively on supporting animals brought in by the RSPCA Inspectorate.
Full Biography
I attended the Royal Veterinary College starting in 1991 and qualified in 1996. I started work in South Wales in a 3 vet practice (which was one of only 5 UK small animal only jobs advertised in the Vet record that month, things have changed!) in the town of Merthyr Tydfil. In late 1998 the practice became a busy 5 vet one. I trained for and started covering all of the rabbit work at the practice which I enjoyed until a number of years later I became allergic to their fur and had to step away from them. The practice was heavily involved with setting up an RSPCA clinic in Merthyr Tydfil in 2005 and I was one of the three vets working part of the week in the clinic seeing the pets of owners on low income, seeing a completely new set of clients I found this side of the veterinary world very rewarding, seeing animals that often would not have seen vets otherwise or certainly less frequently. I loved this focus and the ability to make more of a difference so after a few years of this involvement I changed my path and became an RSPCA employee in 2008. I became the sole vet at the clinic where I have stayed, later taking on the management of the clinic as well as the veterinary work. This style of veterinary practice with a practical shelter medicine based focus I have always found rewarding despite the difficulties of reduced funds to work with as well as the cases supporting the local Inspectorate groups with the animals that came into their care. In the last 3 years we have changed to just supporting the Inspectorate animals and concentrating on developing my Shelter medicine skills to enable us to help as many of these as possible. This is rewarding in a different way, taking some very poorly treated animals and giving them the care and medical support they have often been lacking, it’s is hard seeing what we see so frequently but turning those animals around or ending their suffering while difficult make a big difference in our corner of the world.
Outside of work I tend to switch off as hard as possible, supporting the local rugby club Ebbw Vale RFC, playing poker and running pub quizzes as well as cooking where I have set myself a number of challenges over the years, I have cooked a traditional or national dish from every country in the world which took a number of years and a lot of searching for unusual ingredients! Creating and trying to perfect dishes, the best ragu and beef and ale stews and the more unusual beef and meringue dish and bacon wrapped bananas! Then a month of Japanese only cooking and currently dipping into the Masterchef 20 minute skills challenges.
The love of food extends to eating as well, travelling around the UK and the world immersing ourselves in the local food and drink as much as possible, try the different curried crickets, kudu steaks and chicken feet.
Both myself and my wife love to travel to exotic but non touristy destinations, the Inca trail and Turkish mountains, but mostly to follow wildlife from the Galapagos and Costa Rica to kayaking off Washington state and recently down the Zambezi river so close (sometimes too close) to the wildlife. Our latest trip is later this year to Mongolia looking for the snow leopard 🤞for that!