Henry Brown Amos
Born(1869-05-24)24 May 1869
Tyninghame, Scotland
Died22 October 1946(1946-10-22) (aged 77)
Hendon, England
OccupationAnimal rights activist
Spouse(s)
Ruth Helen Bowker Sharp
​
​
(m. 1899; died 1905)​
Children2

Henry Brown Amos (24 May 1869 – 22 October 1946) was a Scottish animal rights activist, humanitarian and vegetarian.

Biography

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]

Selected publications

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Baker, Anne Pimlott (2004). "Amos, Henry Brown (1869–1946), campaigner against field sports". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/53036. ISBN 9780198614128. Retrieved 1 July 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ a b "Henry Brown Amos (1869-1946)". The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review. December 1946.
  3. ^ a b c d e May, Allyson N. (2013). The Fox-Hunting Controversy, 1781–2004: Class and Cruelty. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-1-4094-6069-5.
  4. ^ a b "Henry Brown Amos". henrysalt.co.uk.
  5. ^ "Literary Notices". Good Health. 13 (2): 31. January 1915.
  6. ^ Kean, Hilda. (1998). Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain Since 1800. Reaktion Books. p. 185. ISBN 1-86189-014-1
  7. ^ a b c d Allen, Daniel; Watkins, Charles; Matless, David (April 2016). "'An incredibly vile sport': Campaigns against Otter Hunting in Britain, 1900–39". Rural History. 27 (1): 79–101. doi:10.1017/S0956793315000175. ISSN 0956-7933.
  8. ^ Griffin, Emma. (2007). Blood Sport: Hunting in Britain Since 1066. Yale University Press. p. 180. ISBN 978-0-300-11628-1
  9. ^ Tichelar, Michael. (2017). The History of Opposition to Blood Sports in Twentieth Century England. Routledge. p. 55. ISBN 978-1-138-22543-5
  10. ^ "League Against Cruel Sports". League Against Cruel Sports.
  11. ^ Turner, Ernest Sackville. (1964). All Heaven in a Rage. Michael Joseph. p. 283
  12. ^ Windeatt, Philip. (1982). The Hunt and the Anti-Hunt. Pluto Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0861043873

External links

Animal rights
Veganism and vegetarianism
Categories