Muriel Dowding, Baroness Dowding

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Muriel Dowding, Baroness Dowding (March 22, 1908 – November 20, 1993) was, like her husband Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, a vegetarian, an anti-vivisectionist and a spiritualist.

She was well known in Britain for her work as an animal rights campaigner. In 1959 she founded Beauty Without Cruelty to highlight the suffering of animals. She won several awards from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA).

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• Beauty Without Cruelty

Below I submit one of the many obituaries to my mother, Muriel Dowding.

Muriel, The Lady Dowding.

Muriel Albino was borne in London on 22nd. March 1908. She tells her unusual life-story in an autobiography "Beauty - Not the Beast", published by Neville Spearman 1980. ISBN 0 85978 056 2. (Paperback in USA "The Psychic Life of Lady Dowding" published by the Theosophical Society, New York). While a young girl, her father sent her to a school for young gentlemen in order that she should not to be spoiled, but her passion was dancing and as a young student she was invited by Pavlova to join her ballet company. However, in those days a stage career was not considered respectable. Muriel lived with her mother and younger sister Kathleen in the village of Pembury, near Tunbridge Wells. It was while she was dancing in a play that she met Max Whiting. They were married in the 13th century Pembury Old Church on August 24th. 1935. In 1938 they had a son, David. Though in a reserved profession, Max volunteered to join the RAF during the Second World War. He was a Pilot Officer with 630 Squadron and was killed on the night of 22nd. May 1944, when the Lancaster he was flying was shot down over Central Jutland, Denmark.

Muriel had a difficult time, as was the case with so many young war widows. Her mother loved animals, was a vegetarian, studied astrology and healing. It was through a common interest in psychic matters that Muriel met, and later married Air Chief Marshal, Lord Dowding on 25th. September 1951. He came to live in her house near Tunbridge Wells, but had to forgo the honeymoon, as there was no one to look after her many stray cats. As a result of Muriel's vegetarian principles and her care for animals, Lord Dowding's maiden speech in the House of Lords in March 1948 led to many improvements in England's first slaughter law. He became a vegetarian and made over thirty speeches in Parliament, nearly all were on animal welfare matters, particularly concerning the plight of laboratory animals (The NAVS. instigated the World Day for Laboratory Animals, which falls on Lord Dowding's birthday - 24th. April). Muriel is said to have given Dowding the happiest years of his life, following his exacting military career, in which he held senior rank spanning two World Wars, and having won the Battle of Britain, he is credited for much of the freedom that Britain and indeed Europe enjoys today. As a team they worked superbly for both animal welfare and spiritual matters alike. He was a reassuring pillar of wisdom, quietly encouraging Muriel with her pioneering work to expose the hitherto unknown cruelties behind the cosmetic and fur trades.

Muriel Dowding was the founder of the international charity Beauty without Cruelty; though she had no wish to form yet another animal organisation and certainly not to become involved in the sometimes devious ways of commerce, of which she had little knowledge. Arithmetic and spelling were not her strong points, but her inspiration and vitality was backed by a sincere warmth, charm and concern for all. The foundation for all her family's work (including the colours she chose) was based on Muriel's mother's spiritual and theosophical beliefs. An extract from Lord Dowding's speech to Parliament on the 18th July 1957 expressed these ideals: ..."All life is one, and all its manifestations with which we have contact are climbing the ladder of evolution. The animals are our younger brothers and sisters, also on the ladder, but a few rungs lower down than we are. It is an important part of our responsibilities to help them in their assent, and not to retard their development by cruel exploitation of their helplessness." ....

Despite her great loss following Hugh Dowding's death in February 1970, Muriel continued her vocation for animals and became President of the National Anti-Vivisection Society, the International Association Against Painful Experiments on Animals and a Vice President of the R.S.P.C.A. During a visit to India in 1977, she persuaded the Prim Minister to ban the export of monkeys, which were used in large numbers for experiments.

Muriel Dowding's unique claim to fame is that she discovered and publicised the cruelties in the cosmetic trade, which were hitherto unrecognised. In those pioneering days, she would say "the choice is yours" and unlike others, she provided one. She did not aim to run a business, or an organisation, but by exposing the facts to change the climate of public opinion and create a demand for humane alternatives. Thus when commercial pressures began to dominate the organisation she founded in 1959, she again turned her energies to continuing her late husband's fight to alleviate the suffering of laboratory animals.

She was the first of her kind, and opened the way for others to follow. Her outstanding success is demonstrated by the fact that one of Britain's largest pharmaceutical chains, an initial adversary in her fight against the exploitation of animals, now promotes its cosmetics as "NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS" - a fitting epitaph perhaps?

Five years after her death, in November 1998, the British Government announced that they were not going to issue any further licences for the testing of cosmetics and their ingredients on animals, thus outlawing cosmetic experiments on live animals in Britain. In Strasbourg, on the 11th May 2002, the European Parliament voted for a total ban on testing cosmetics on live animals in the EU by December 2004, and an immediate ban on animal testing where other methods have been evaluated.

Muriel Dowding died in Hove 20th. November 1993, and at a memorial service her ashes were laid to rest next to her husband in the RAF Chapel, Westminster Abbey.