Emily Williamson (''née'' Bateson; 17 April 1855 – 12 January 1936), was an English philanthropist. She was co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) with

Eliza Phillips Eliza Phillips (''née'' Barron; 1823 – 18 August 1916) was an English animal welfare activist and co-founder of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. She was the RSPB's vice president and publications editor. Biography Early life an ...

in 1891. The society started as the Plumage League; it became the Society for the Protection of Birds, and was granted 'Royal' status in 1904. In 1891 she also established the Gentlewomen's Employment Association in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

Personal life

Emily Bateson was born at Moon, Lancaster, in April 1855. She was the daughter of Frederick Septimus Bateson and Eliza Frost. She settled in Didsbury after her marriage on 8June 1882 to Robert Wood Williamson, where they lived until their relocation to The Copse,

Brook, Surrey __NOTOC__ Brook is a hamlet in the civil parish of Witley in the Waverley district in south-west Surrey. It is in the far west of Wormley, beyond Sandhills with which it avoids being contiguous due to a narrow, partly woodland buffer. Broo ...

, in 1912. When Robert died in 1932, Emily moved to

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

where she remained for the rest of her life. She died at home in Kensington on 12January 1936, at age 80. She and her husband left no issue. The home in which she lived in Didsbury, and from which she established her organisation, bears a plaque placed in 1989 to honour her work on the centenary of her organisation.

Royal Society for the Protection of Birds

Williamson disapproved of the use of bird feathers in fashion, both due to the reduction of bird population and the

cruelty Cruelty is the pleasure in inflicting suffering or inaction towards another's suffering when a clear remedy is readily available. Sadism can also be related to this form of action or concept. Cruel ways of inflicting suffering may involve ...

plume hunting Plume hunting is the hunting of wild birds to harvest their feathers, especially the more decorative plumes which were sold for use as ornamentation, such as aigrettes in millinery. The movement against the plume trade in the United Kingdom w ...

. In February 1889 she founded the Society for the Protection of Birds, a group of women who pledged not to wear feathers from most birds. Explicit exceptions included birds killed for food and the ostrich, because the harvesting of its tail feathers was not painful. The early efforts of the Society were lauded in the press, including an endorsement in ''Punch'' in October 1889, although ''Punch'' questioned the degree of restriction imposed by the group: "Not a ''very'' severe self-denying ordinance that, Ladies?" In 1891 Williamson's group merged with a similar organisation in Croydon, organised by

and focused on both "fur and feather". The headquarters of the merged Society for the Protection of Birds was moved to London. Hannah Poland took over from Williamson as secretary, and Winifred, the Duchess of Portland became president. Williamson took a vice-presidency which she would retain until her death. She also continued to serve as secretary in various branches through most of the rest of her life, according to where she lived: in Didsbury (1891–1911), Brook, Surrey (1912–1931), and London (1931 – ca. 1934). In the period from 1891 to 1899, membership expanded from 1,200 to over 20,000. Among the membership, once men were included, was William Henry Hudson. In 1904, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was incorporated by

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

, and the group began charging membership fees. That year was the only one in which Williamson spoke at an annual meeting, reflecting on the growth of the organization from "when it was a very small fledgling, and had no dreams of soaring to the heights which it had reached".

Later work

In 1891, she had founded the Gentlewomen's Employment Association in Manchester, and she also initiated two influential programmes from within this group: the Princess Christian Training College for Nurses and, in 1898, the Loan Training Fund, which helped to subsidise the costs of further education for young women. Although no records of these organisations exist, the Loan Training Fund was said to have been the first of its kind in the country.

Notes

The recent historical work by Tessa Boase 'Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather' Aurum Press London 2018 covers the personalities of those involved in the early days of the (R)SPB {{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Emily 1855 births 1936 deaths English philanthropists English environmentalists Royal Society for the Protection of Birds people