Etta Lemon: The Woman Who Saved the Birds

Product Information

I am quite bewildered, and do not know where I am,” wrote Etta, then aged 79, to one of her trusted male ‘Watchers’ at an RSPB reserve (the Watchers were her own invention; a nationwide system of eyes and ears for bird protection).

The more I got to know Etta, the more I found myself wondering if she was perhaps neuro-diverse, like eco campaigners Greta and Chris Packham. The title "Society for the Protection of Birds" was dismissed as "very ambitious" by one British Museum naturalist, "for a band of ladies who do nothing but abstain from personal iniquity in the matter of bonnets.This gripping narrative explores two singular heroines – one lionised, the other forgotten – and their rival, overlapping campaigns.

In 1903 she launched the annual Bird and Tree Challenge Shield for schools: a nature writing competition for all age groups, all schools. For three decades, Etta and her local secretaries battled to quench the insatiable fashion for feathered and bird-bedecked hats – a fashion decimating birdlife around the world. It must have been challenging for the activists to bring personal choices in fashion under the scanner. The upcoming generation of male birders dismissed the RSPB’s female founders as elderly, unscientific do-gooders.Bringing her story to life has convinced me that every campaigning group needs an Etta, and that characters like Etta will always earn themselves enemies. La Royal Society for the Protection of Birds : acteurs et stratégies pour une protection des oiseaux en Grande-Bretagne, 1891–1930". Lemon could not continue as honorary secretary since the charter excluded women from leading the organisation.

And the work had its own problems—for employment was seasonal and the girls had to find other work when feather work closed after each season.I'm not sure Etta Lemon would be entirely in tune with my own beliefs - but I sure am glad someone was there to do the right thing by the birds! Margaretta " Etta" Louisa Lemon MBE ( née Smith; 22 November 1860 – 8 July 1953) was an English bird conservationist and a founding member of what is now the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).