ABSTRACT
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, together with its junior section, the Young Ornithologists’ Club, has a membership in excess of 1 million. It is the largest voluntary nature conservation body in Britain. Christened the Society for the Protection of Birds in 1891, it grew directly out of the Fur and Feather Group set up in Manchester on 17 February 1889 by solicitor’s wife, Mrs Emily Williamson. The merging with other anti-millinery groups brought about the change of name but the movement continued an almost entirely feminine one in its early years. It was based wholly on the emotive nature of the feather trade which killed birds cruelly and left their defenceless young to starve unattended in the nest. A constitution was formalised, ruling that:
• members shall discourage the wanton destruction of birds and interest themselves in their protection;
• lady members shall refrain from wearing the feathers of any bird not killed for the purposes of food, the ostrich excepted.
