Henry B. Amos | |
---|---|
Born | Henry Brown Amos 24 May 1869 Tyninghame, Scotland |
Died | 22 October 1946 Hendon, England | (aged 77)
Occupation | Animal rights activist |
Spouse(s) | Ruth Helen Bowker Sharp
(m. 1899; died 1905) |
Children | 2 |
Henry Brown Amos (24 May 1869 – 22 October 1946) was a Scottish animal rights activist, humanitarian and vegetarian.
Amos was born at Tyninghame, in 1869[1] and first became interested in vegetarianism in about 1886.[2] He later worked as a drapery salesman and married Ruth Helen Bowker Sharp (1869–1905) on 7 February 1899.[1]
Amos was a member of the Humanitarian League and former member of the RSPCA.[3] In the mid-1890s he was an organizer in the London for the Vegetarian Federal Union.[1] In 1895, he was Hon. Secretary of the Vegetarian Cycling & Athletic Club and was associated with Sidney H. Beard and the Order of the Golden Age (1901–1903).[4] He succeeded Albert Broadbent as Secretary of the Vegetarian Society (1913–1914).[4] In 1915, he published a short pamphlet on cooking vegetarian meals.[5]
Amos founded the League Against Cruel Sports (LACS) in 1924 with Ernest Bell and George Greenwood.[3][6] The league aimed to abolish the hunting of deer, foxes, hares, otters and the coursing of hares and rabbits.[3] Amos' letters campaigning against rabbit-coursing in Surrey led to its prohibition in 1924.[7] He organized the Leeds Rodeo Protest Committee the same year.[7]
Amos became highly critical of the RSPCA because during this time they were unwilling to take action against hunting.[3][8] His published criticism of the RSPCA caused an internal conflict and because of this Greenwood resigned from LACS in 1927 and Bell resigned in 1931.[7][9][10] LACS began producing a monthly journal Cruel Sports which Amos edited.[7] According to E. S. Turner, the journal "criticised the RSPCA for its toleration of fox-hunting, and attacked the Church for sheltering behind the RSPCA."[11] In the 1927 January edition, Amos noted that "little has been done either by religion or education to stem the tide of cruelty involved in hunting."[12]
In 1935, Amos was jailed briefly for throwing a copy of Henry Stephens Salt's Creed of Kinship through a stained glass window at Exeter Cathedral during evensong.[3] Suffering for years from a bronchial illness, he was eventually forced to retire from his work with the League at the end of 1936.[1]
Amos died in Hendon, north London, on 22 October 1946, at the age of 77; he was survived by two daughters.[1][2]