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.

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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...

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Other Subjects

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
Sugar

Sugar

Sugar was John Henderson's companion for 10 years before she died. When Sugar died John said: “She was my best friend and I was hers. We did everything together. ... “She was a rescue dog. One day ...

Animal, Animals

1 memorial
Sheridan’s Stables

Sheridan’s Stables

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

Building, Animals

1 memorial
horses killed and injured in the terrorist bombing at Hyde Park

horses killed and injured in the terrorist bombing at Hyde Park

Seven horses were killed by the bomb or as an act of mercy shortly after.  One, Sefton, was critically injured but survived to become a celebrity.  The Daily Mail have another photo and an extremel...

Animal, Animals, Tragedy

1 memorial
National Council for Animal Welfare

National Council for Animal Welfare

One of a number of organisations active in the 1920s promoting animal welfare.

Group, Animals

1 memorial

Previously viewed

Gunner S. Agland
War dead, WW1
1 memorial
Mary Seacole steel statue

Mary Seacole steel statue

W2, St Mary's Terrrace

At the southern end of St Mary’s Terrace, beside the bike track, these statues are extremely difficult to photograph, Turing in particula...

1 subject commemorated, 1 creator
Pioneer Health Centre

Pioneer Health Centre

Founded by doctors George Scott Williamson and Innes Pearse as an integral part of  the 'Peckham Experiment', the area being chosen because of its deprivation. Nine hundred and fifty local families...

Building, Community / Clubs, Education

1 memorial
Mulalley & Co Ltd

Mulalley & Co Ltd

Building firm set up by the O'Malley family in 1972, based in Woodford Green.

Group, Property

1 memorial
Lieutenant-General Charles Fleetwood

Lieutenant-General Charles Fleetwood

Fought on the anti-royalist side in the Civil War. In 1652 he married for the second time to Bridget, Cromwell's daughter and widow of Henry Ireton. That same year he was appointed Lord Deputy of I...

Person, Armed Forces, Politics & Administration

1 memorial