Henry Brown Amos (24 May 1869 – 22 October 1946) was a Scottish activist for animal rights, vegetarianism, humanitarianism and against vivisection and hunting. He also worked for some time as a draper. Amos held a number of positions within organisations dedicated to animals and vegetarianism, and co-founded the League Against Cruel Sports in 1924.
Henry B. Amos | |
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| Born | Henry Brown Amos 24 May 1869 Tyninghame, Scotland |
| Died | 22 October 1946 (aged 77) Hendon, England |
| Occupation(s) | Activist, draper |
| Spouse | Ruth Helen Bowker Sharp (m. 1899; died 1905) |
| Children | 4 |
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Biography
Amos was born in Tyninghame, Scotland, on 24 May 1869.[1] He first became interested in vegetarianism when he was a teenager, in about 1886.[2] He later worked as a draper and married Ruth Helen Bowker Sharp (1869–1905) on 7 February 1899; they had four children, two of whom died in infancy.[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 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 co-founded the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports (later the League Against Cruel Sports) 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 the League in 1927 and Bell resigned in 1931.[7][9][10] The League 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 January 1927 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] as a protest against the church's endorsement of hunting.[1] 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.[1][2]
Selected publications
- The Food Reformer's Year Book and Health Annual (editor for multiple years, 1909)
- Economical, Nourishing Dishes for Times of Stress and How to Cook Them (1915)
- Opinions in Favour of Vegetarianism by Leading Temperance Reformers (1919)