And then it hit me...! Only a few years ago my mum became somewhat surprisingly obsessed with the the RSPB. A British charity which, even more surprisingly, she then also begun to work for. So I knew that I had to, for her sake perhaps, dedicate one of my entries to the RSPB...
Birds and feathers are two words that are of great importance to the RSPB. But take away the birds and you are left with a word that may not seem like a big surprise to you, but that has left the fashion industry with magnificent value.
It is the Autumn/Winter 2010 fashion week and the catwalks are bursting with the rich colours of feathers from exotic birds whose beauty we cannot even begin to imagine. Like every year we have come to expect seeing fur on the Autumn/Winter catwalk shows and it has begun to become one of those fashion key pieces that can be found in everyone's wardrobe, whether they are fifteen or fifty. So why, this year, has it not satisfied the hungry designers at seeing the latest A-lister step out in their new-and-improved fur covered seasonal coat? Why, this year, do we have to see the all so skinny models plastered from head to toe in feathers?
At the RSPB many staff and volunteers have become thoroughly acquainted with the question that is asked by so many visitors over and over again - why and when was the RSPB founded? A lot of us would reply that the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds is an organisation (as Wikipedia has put it) 'which works to promote conservation and protection of birds and the wider environment through public awareness campaigns, petitions and through the operation of nature reserves throughout the United Kingdom.'
Because this reply often fascinates the visitors enough, the RSPB usually does not tend to push the matter further and leaves it at that. But what if we were to ask about the history of the RSPB? How many of us would be able to explain the true reason behind the British charity?
When we refer back to Wikipedia it will tell us that 'The charity was founded in 1889 by Emily Williamson at her house in Didsbury, Manchester (now in Fletcher Moss Botanical Garden), as a protest group campaigning against the use of great crested grebe and kittiwake skins and feathers in fur clothing.'
Twenty words are all that it takes to surprise us - 'as a protest group campaigning against the use of great crested grebe and kittiwake skins and feathers in fur clothing.' So perhaps now it is more apprehensible why I have chosen to discuss the use of feathers in clothing, that we have again become more and more used to seeing.
Thinking back less than one hundred years ago, the memory of birds being sold on every big towns market square may have been the image that was to haunt these brave women during many sleepless nights. Perhaps it was not only the image of tiny, vulnerable birds desperately trying to struggle free from the strong grip of their owners, but the thought of them being traded from collector to collector. And collected they were. Soon, these women began to understand that the reason behind this cruelty was not because of the beauty of the birds but for many collectors it was the chase and the success that lay behind owning such extraordinary creatures.
Winifred Anna Cavendish-Bentinck, Duchess of Portland (left) was possibly one of the most influential women of Society. She was born at Murthly Castle, Perthshire in 1863. Following her marriage to the 6th Duke of Portland, she became a noticeable society figure. She had a strong interest in the welfare of birds from the early stages of her life and became the RSPB's first and longest President, commiting to the society for 65 years and until her death in 1954 at the age of 91.
But perhaps the woman who can be most credited with the establishment of the RSPB, who is also the most forgotten is Mrs Lemon. Like the Duchess of Portland, Mrs Lemon sparked a keen interest in the treatment of birds as a young woman when she read Mrs Brightwen's 'Wild Nature Won by Kindness'. From then on she became concerned with the continuous slaughter of birds all over the world and for what it was all about - beauty.
So now, one hundred years later and the RSPB has over a million members, including over 195,000 youth members; over 200 nature reserves covering almost 130,000 hectares, home to 80% of our rarest or most threatened bird species; a UK headquarters, three national offices and nine regional offices - but to what purpose?
One hundred and ten years ago the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds was founded by women who campaigned against the fashion of the time for women to wear exotic feathers in hats, and now that the fashion has returned to the catwalk and is, once again, poisoning even the biggest highstreet chains (from a Kate Moss Topshop Feather Cape, £85 to a Retro Feather Halter Dress, £48.00 at Warehouse - the choice is unlimited) the time has come to unveil the history of the RSPB and stop a dêja-vu from happening.
Does this generation want to be responsible for the extinction of the most amazing creatures on the planet, or should we stand up and make an impact like three incredible women did over one hundred years ago? Let us re-unite those two treasured words once and for all... birds and feathers.
