Person    | Female  Born 1791  Died 1877

Mrs Catherine Smithies

Born as Catherine Bywater. Founded the Band of Mercy movement in Britain. She also campaigned against slavery but we can find no details.

Her home, Earlham Grove House, built c.1865, has also been known as Westbury House and Woodside House. It still stands in Woodside Park on the High Road. Her son, Thomas Bywater Smithies (1817-83) who never married, was living with her in Earlham Grove when she died.

We can find no picture of Smithies so we are using this charming one of a Band of Mercy, possibly American.

2018: Dai Bevan wrote to tell us that the Shoreditch Observer, 3 November 1877 reports Mrs Smithies' funeral so she must have died shortly before that date. We had previously taken her date of death as 1878 from her son's page at the normally reliable ODNB. We thank Dai for this correction.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Mrs Catherine Smithies

Commemorated ati

Mrs Catherine Smithies

{The sides of the plinth above each basin are inscribed with texts.  Taking t...

Read More

Other Subjects

People's Dispensary for Sick Animals

People's Dispensary for Sick Animals

Known as the PDSA, it was founded by Maria Dickin to provide free care for sick and injured animals of the poor. It operates throughout Great Britain in animal hospitals and practices, and is suppo...

Group, Animals, Medicine

2 memorials
Sheridan’s Stables

Sheridan’s Stables

Harrow Through Time by Don Walter dates this bucolic image to 1795.

Building, Animals

1 memorial
Frances Power Cobbe

Frances Power Cobbe

Irish social reformer and suffragist. Writer, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading women's suffrage campaigner. She founded a number of animal advocacy groups, including the Nati...

Person, Animals, Gender Issues, Ireland, Wales

1 memorial
Charles Cruft

Charles Cruft

Dog show promoter. Worked as a travelling salesman for Spratt's. His first dog show was run in 1878 at the request of the French breeders at the Paris Exhibition. There followed some more on beh...

Person, Animals

1 memorial
Speedie

Speedie

A tortoise with a comparatively short life.  We have to own, our picture does not actually show Speedie him/herself.

Animal, Animals

1 memorial