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.^[1] She was the RSPB's vice president and publications editor.^[2]

Eliza Barron was born in Wandsworth, Surrey^[3] and baptised at the church of St Mary-at-Lambeth on 11 July 1823, the only child of George Barron (c. 1763–1852), a gentleman, and Elizabeth Joanna Barron (née Barron; 1792–1824). Her parents may have been distant cousins. She was probably raised by her maternal grandparents, but little is known of her early life, though she did meet Samuel Taylor Coleridge while living in Highgate in her youth.^[1]

On 11 November 1847, she married the historian and author Robert Montgomery Martin after he had his first marriage dissolved by an Act of Parliament.^[1] She was widowed in 1868 and her interest in animal welfare began, inspired by witnessing the sufferings of cattle on a sea voyage.^[1]

On 16 May 1874 she married the Reverend Edward Phillips (1807–1885). They lived at Culverdon Castle, Culverdon Down, Tunbridge Wells, where she became the central figure in the local branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (later RSPCA).

After the loss of her second husband in 1885, Phillips made a central contribution to the history of the protection of bird life in Britain. The focus of these groups was opposition to the use of bird feathers in ladies' fashions and the plumage trade. The Society for the Protection of Birds was formed by the 1891 amalgamation^[4] of The Plumage League, an anti-plumage group based in Didsbury, Manchester, run by Emily Williamson and the 'Fin, Fur and Feather Folk'^[5] whose afternoons meetings were established in 1889 at Phillips's house with Catherine Victoria Hall, Hannah Poland and other women, in London and Croydon.^[1] Phillips became head of publications.^[6]

"Mrs Edward Phillips' Fin, Fur and Feather afternoons at 11 Morland Road, Croydon, at which she and her close friend, Miss C V Hall of Lancaster Lodge, London, made welcome their numerous friends interested in the protection of wild creatures; in furtherance of this, Mrs Phillips gave unstintingly of her literary ability, and great experience of the world, and Miss Hall of her money and sweet patience, the ultimate outcome being the formation of a Society designed for the protection of Wild Birds throughout the world."^[7]

In 1890, the society published its first leaflet, entitled Destruction of Ornamental-Plumaged Birds,^[8] aimed at saving the egret population by informing wealthy women of the environmental damage wrought by the use of feathers in fashion. A later 1897 publication, Bird Food in Winter,^[9] aimed to address the use of berries as winter decoration and encouraged the use of synthetic berries to preserve the birds food source. By 1898 the RSPB had 20,000 members and in 1897 alone had distributed over 16,000 letters and 50,000 leaflets.^[1] The society received a Royal Charter in 1904.^[4]

Phillips died on 18 August 1916 at her home in Croydon.^[1] Even though she was 93, an inquest was held into her sudden death, as she abruptly became ill and died within half an hour, before a doctor could arrive. The inquest determined she died of natural causes.^[10]

Phillips made an important contribution to the animal and bird welfare groups of the later 19th century. She left a sizable estate of more than £100,000 (£8.56 million as of 2024), half of which was designated "for the protection of and relief of suffering of beasts and birds" in her will (and half to over 70 named family and friends).^[11]

In 2012, the RSPB had over a million members, including over 195,000 youth members, as well as 18,000 volunteers assisting on 200 nature reserves covering almost 130,000 hectares, home to 80% of the UK's rarest or most threatened bird species.^[12]

There is no known picture of Phillips and no known residence remains.^[6] There is a plaque recognising her life on the original Culverden Castle entrance pillars on Culverdon Down road, although the castle no longer exists (the incorrect birth date on the plaque was corrected in 2022).

Phillips left Vaughan House to the Church Commissioners for the use of the minister of St Martins church in Morland Road. The house, along with adjacent properties including Gordon House^[13] next door at 24 Morland Road, was demolished and replaced in 1967 by four tower blocks, only one of which remains on Gordon Crescent.^[14]

Phillips also made provision in her will to build a clock tower for St Martin's Church opposite Vaughan House on the corner of Stretton Road. It was completed in 1922 and demolished with the church in 1995.^[15]

• Gates, Barbara T. (1998). "Writing for the Birds". Kindred Nature: Victorian and Edwardian Women Embrace the Living World. Chicago [u.a.]: Univ. of Chicago Press. pp. 114–124. ISBN 978-0-226-28443-9.