It’s a family affair as Podiatry Department celebrates

The recent graduation ceremonies saw multiple celebrations for the Podiatry department at the University of Huddersfield, with – appropriately enough – the patter of tiny feet thrown in for good measure.

When the much-delayed graduations eventually took place in March, father and daughter Professor Wesley and Rachel Vernon celebrated Rachel achieving a Master’s in Forensic Podiatry, a course which Wesley had been the first person to complete.

Meanwhile, Dr Grace Parfitt, Senior Lecturer in Podiatry, was joined by her husband James Linsley at the same ceremony. Grace received her PhD while James was awarded his Master’s in Podiatry, and the celebrations have continued with the couple welcoming their baby daughter Maeva into the world just a few weeks later.

Professor Wesley Vernon OBE is a Visiting Professor at Huddersfield, having worked as Head of Podiatry Services for the NHS in Sheffield for two decades, and he helped in ensuring the success of the University’s MSc in Forensic Podiatry when it was established.

“I really wanted to be a pathologist when I was young, and I even had a holiday job working in a mortuary when I was 17,” says Wesley. “I did a degree in podiatry at Brighton, and my final year project looked at how podiatrists’ records can be used in forensic identification.”

The field of forensic podiatry is wide ranging and includes how footprints and gait analysis can be used for identification purposes.

“It’s a very minority area, not many people work in it,” Wesley adds. “Traditional techniques can’t be used, DNA might be meaningless but assessing a walking pattern can lead somewhere.”

Wesley was the first to complete the MSc at Huddersfield as he wanted to understand what students would experience from it. Moving forward by several years, and his daughter Rachel decided to change careers by taking the same course after sharing her father’s passion for the subject.

Discover more about the 30-credit Podiatry course at University of Huddersfield

“Wesley was the first student to be awarded the MSc in Forensic Podiatry in 2015,” says Senior Lecturer Sarah Reel. “Unfortunately, due to various constraints, the course was recently forced to end but serendipitously, the last student to graduate with an MSc in Forensic Podiatry was Wes’ daughter Rachel! Happily, the forensic podiatry 30-credit module is still taught as a stand-alone course, but we were all absolutely delighted that Wes and Rachel could share this very special achievement at the graduation in March.”