{{Short description|English philanthropist and co-founder of RSPB}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2015}} {{Use British English|date=June 2015}} {{Infobox person | name = Emily Williamson | image = Emily_Williamson.jpg | caption = Emily Williamson | birth_name = Emily Bateson | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1855|04|17}} | birth_place = Highfield, Lancaster, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|1936|01|12|1855|04|17}} | death_place = Kensington, London, England | spouse = {{marriage|Robert Wood Williamson|1882|1932}} | known_for = Society for the Protection of Birds | occupation = Environmentalist }}
'''Emily Williamson''' ({{nee|'''Bateson'''}}; 17 April 1855 – 12 January 1936), was an English philanthropist. She was founder of the Society for the Protection of Birds.<ref name=rspb>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rspb.org.uk/about/history/milestones.aspx|title=History of the RSPB|website=rspb.org.uk|author=Anon|year=2012|publisher=Royal Society for the Protection of Birds|accessdate=2012-10-19|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120505102521/https://www.rspb.org.uk/about/history/milestones.aspx|archivedate=2012-05-05}}</ref><ref name="ODNB">{{ODNBweb|first=Molly Baer|last=Kramer|id=54568|title=Williamson <nowiki>[</nowiki>née Bateson<nowiki>]</nowiki>, Emily (1855–1936)}}</ref> which was granted 'Royal' status in 1904.<ref name="AdamsDonovan1995">{{cite book |author1=Carol J. Adams |author-link=Carol J. Adams |author2=Josephine Donovan |author2-link=Josephine Donovan |title=Animals and Women: Feminist Theoretical Explorations |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJSuTkFlpyIC&pg=PA267 |accessdate=2012-10-19 |year= 1995 |publisher=Duke University Press |isbn=978-0-8223-1667-1 |page=267|oclc=254310770}}</ref> In 1891 she also established the Gentlewomen's Employment Association in Manchester.<ref name="ODNB"/>
==Personal life== Emily Bateson was born at Highfield, Lancaster, in April 1855. She was the daughter of Frederick Septimus Bateson and Eliza Frost. She settled in Didsbury after her marriage on 8{{nbsp}}June 1882 to Robert Wood Williamson, where they lived until their relocation to The Copse, Brook, Surrey, in 1912. When Robert died in 1932, Emily moved to London where she remained for the rest of her life. She died at home in Kensington on 12{{nbsp}}January 1936, aged 80. The couple did not have any children.
==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 of plume hunting. 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.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref name="LemonMayhew1889">{{cite book|last1=Lemon|first1=Mark|author2=Henry Mayhew|author3=Tom Taylor |author4=Shirley Brooks |author5=Sir Francis Cowley Burnand |author6=Sir Owen Seaman|title=Punch|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iGYPAQAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA197|accessdate=23 January 2013|year=1889|publisher=Punch Publications Limited|page=197}}</ref> Explicit exceptions included birds killed for food and the ostrich, because the harvesting of its tail feathers was not painful.<ref name="ODNB"/><ref name="LemonMayhew1889"/> The society later became the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in 1904.
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?"<ref name="LemonMayhew1889"/> In 1891 the headquarters 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).<ref name="ODNB"/>
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, 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".<ref name="ODNB"/>
The historical work ''Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather''<ref name=purplefeather>{{cite book|publisher=Aurum Press London |year=2018|title=Mrs Pankhurst's Purple Feather|first=Tessa |last=Boase|ISBN=9781781316542|oclc=1034631126}}</ref> covers the personalities of those involved in the early days of the (R)SPB.
==Work in Education and Employment== 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 it is believed that records of these organisations no longer exist, the Loan Training Fund was said to have been the first of its kind in the country.
==Posthumous recognition== [[File:Emily_Williamson_1855_1936_Society_for_the_Protection_of_Birds_RSPB_Didsbury.jpg|A plaque at Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden commemorating Emily Williamson|thumb|right]]
The home in which she lived in Didsbury and from which she established her organisation, bears a plaque, which was placed in 1989, to honour her work on the centenary of her organisation.<ref name="ODNB"/>
On 16 April 2023, a plaque honouring Williamson was unveiled in her birthplace in Lancaster by her great, great niece, zoologist and ornithologist Professor Melissa Bateson.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-65264951 |location=London| website=bbc.co.uk|first1=Rumeana|last1= Jahangir |first2= Lauren|last2= Hirst|title=Emily Williamson: Plaque to honour RSPB founder unveiled | publisher=BBC News | year= 2023 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |first=Alasdair|last=Mckee |year=2023|title=Plaque for RSPB founder Emily Williamson |url=https://group.rspb.org.uk/lancaster/news-blogs/blog/emily-plaque/ |access-date=2023-04-21 |website=group.rspb.org.uk|publisher=Lancaster Local RSPB Group |language=en-GB|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230529034313/https://group.rspb.org.uk/lancaster/news-blogs/blog/emily-plaque/|archivedate=2023-05-29}}</ref> A statue of Williamson is due to be unveiled near her former home in Didsbury's Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden.<ref>{{cite web|author=Anon | url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-59275261 | title=Emily Williamson: Winning statue design of RSPB founder revealed|location=London | publisher=BBC News|website=bbc.co.uk | date= 2021 }}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} {{People in animal welfare}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Williamson, Emily}} Category:1855 births Category:1936 deaths Category:English animal welfare workers Category:English environmentalists Category:English philanthropists Category:Royal Society for the Protection of Birds people Category:English founders Category:English women founders