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 of his birth occupied the dairy farm at Mistley Park, Mannington, having removed thither from Yorkshire. On leaving school Spooner was apprenticed to a chemist, George Jervis of Westbar, Sheffield, and at the expiration of his term entered the Royal Veterinary College, as a student, November 1828. He obtained his diploma 21 July 1829, and shortly afterwards was appointed, chiefly through the influence of Professor Sewell, veterinary surgeon to the Zoological Society, a post in which he was soon succeeded by William Youatt [q. v.] About the same time, beginning 3 Nov. 1834 (Veterinarian, 1834, vii. 665), he delivered private lectures and demonstrations on veterinary anatomy in his rooms near the college. Spooner was already ‘well known as one of the best veterinary anatomists, perhaps the best, of which the profession could boast’ (ib. 1835, viii. 646), and thus a gap which had long existed in the official college training was efficiently filled. Early in 1839 he reluctantly accepted the post of demonstrator of anatomy at the college and broke up his private classes. His advancement at the college was rapid. In the same year he became assistant professor in the place of Sewell, who was now made principal of the college on the death of the former chief, Professor Coleman (1764–1839). Spooner delivered his first lecture on 19 Nov. (ib. 1839, xii. 817). Spooner was associated with Professor Sewell (1780–1853) in the formation, in 1836, of the Veterinary Medical Association, of which he became treasurer, and in 1839 president, an office to which he was subsequently re-elected annually. In 1842 he became deputy professor of the college, and in 1853, on the death of Professor Sewell, principal and chief professor, with residence in the college. He now stood at the head of his profession, and in 1858 became president of the incorporated Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (ib. 1858, xxxi. 349).

In 1865 Spooner was a member of the cattle plague commission. His judgment was frequently appealed to in the law courts (cf. Lancet, 16 Dec. 1871). Dying on 24 Nov. 1871, he was buried in Highgate cemetery. He married early in 1840 a Miss Boulton of Manchester, and left a family of five sons and three daughters. Though for some time joint editor of the ‘Veterinary Review,’ Spooner wrote little. It was rather as an operator, where he was aided by his accurate knowledge of anatomy, as a lecturer, and as a demonstrator on anatomy, that his talent was shown. Numerous reports of Spooner's speeches and lectures may be found in the ‘Veterinarian,’ the ‘Proceedings of the Veterinary Medical Association,’ &c. A lecture by him on ‘Horses,’ delivered before the members of the Farringdon Agricultural Library, was published in pamphlet form in 1861 (wrongly placed in the British Museum catalogue under the name of William Charles Spooner).

[The Veterinarian, passim, especially obituary in xlv. (1872), 89; Biographical Sketch of Professor Charles Spooner by Professor J. B. Simonds, London, 1897; Obituary in Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 2 Dec. 1871; Lancet, 16 Dec. 1871.]

 SPOONER, WILLIAM CHARLES (1809?–1885), veterinary surgeon, was born about 1809 at Blandford, Dorset, where his father is said to have been an innkeeper. He was in no way related to his namesake, Charles Spooner (1806–1871) [q. v.], with whom he has been frequently confused. He entered the Royal Veterinary College, obtaining his diploma 7 March 1829, and began to practise at Southampton, where he established a ‘Veterinary Infirmary, Forge, and Register Office for the sale of horses,’ at Vincent's Walk, Hanover Buildings. About 1845, however, he in great measure gave up his veterinary practice, and commenced, in partnership with Mr. Bennett, a manufacture of chemical manures at Eling Hill Farm. He subsequently purchased the ‘Old Bone Mill’ at Eling. Through his exertions the chemical manure works of Spooner & Bailey, probably the best at that time in the south of England, soon became widely known.

In 1840 he was appointed one of the committee ‘to watch over the interests of veterinary science,’ especially with a view to the establishment of a chartered college of veterinary surgeons. He lectured constantly before various clubs and societies in Hampshire and the adjoining counties. He was a frequent contributor to the earlier numbers of the ‘Journal’ of the Royal Agricultural Society, and gained the society's prizes for two essays—‘On the Use of Superphosphate of Lime produced with Acid and Bones for Manure’ (Journal, 1846, vii. 143), and ‘On the Management of Farm Horses’ (ib. 1848, ix. 249). In 1852 a prize offered by the Bath and West of England Agricultural Society for an essay ‘On the most Economical and Profitable Method of growing and consuming Root Crops’ was awarded to him. This essay was printed among the society's proceedings for 1854 (Journal, ii. 1). In the same year a water drill of his invention was exhibited at Pusey, and received much praise (ib. p. 193). Towards the end of his life Spooner concentrated his attention very largely on the manufacture of superphosphate and