Bird Notes and News 



33 



OBITUARY. 



Mrs. Phillips. 

 Of tlie many men and women of distinction 

 and ability who have taken part in the 

 work for the protection of Wild Birds, no 

 name and memory will be held in greater 

 respect and affection than that of Mi-s. Eliza 

 Phillips, whose death on August 18th, at 

 the age of 93, has regretfullj' to be recorded. 

 In early life, through her marriage in 1847 

 Avith Robert Montgomerie Martin, she was 

 well known in the literary world. He was 

 tlie author of voluminous Colonial Histories 

 and other works, was employed by the 

 Marquis WeJlesley to arrange his Indian 

 despatches and correspondence for publica- 

 tion, and later was private secretary to 

 the "great PiO-ConsuFs" greater brother, 

 the Duke of Wellington ; she assisted him in 

 his literacy v.ork, and at Apsley House 

 and Strathiieldsaye v/as accustomed to meet 

 many of the great persons of tlie day. 

 She had memories too of S. T. Coleridge, 

 whom she as a giil met at Highgate, After 

 her husband's death in 1868, during a voyage 

 home from the Continent her attention 

 was drawn to the sufferings of cattle on 

 shipboard, and from that time she began 

 definitelj^ to devote herself to the cause 

 of animals. Her long connexion with the 

 Tmibridge Wells S.P.C.A., of which she 

 was for many years the life and soul, dated 

 from her second marriage, in 1874, to the 

 Rev. Edward Phillips (sometime Vicar of 

 St. Mark's, Surbiton), when she removed 

 from Wellesley Lodge, Sutton, to Culverden 

 Castle, Tmibridge Wells. 



In 1891, a leaflet from her pen on the 

 use of birds in millinery was read by Miss 

 Hannah Poland, then a local Hon. Secretary 

 for the little league of ladies banded together, 

 under the name of the Societv for the 



Protection of Birds, to stem this abuse. A 

 letter from Miss Poland at once engaged 

 Mrs. Philiips' sympathy', and she became 

 Vice-President of the young Society at 

 the same time that the Duchess of Portland 

 accepted tlie Presidentship and Miss C. V. 

 Hall the Treasurersliip ; while tlu-ough her 

 interest, Elizabeth Duchess of Wellington 

 became one of its early supporters. IVIrs. 

 Phillips immediately engaged in active 

 efforts to press forward the Society's aims 

 and influence. When in 1893 the first 

 Committee was appointed, to establish the 

 Society on a wider and more secure basis, 

 she became its first chairman ; and though 

 succeeded in this post the following year 

 by Mr. W. H. Hudson, she continued for 

 years an active member of the committee 

 and had been a member of the Council 

 since the re-constitution of the Society by 

 Roj'^al Charter in 1904. Her name heads the 

 roll of tlie Societj/'s members, and she had 

 been a Fellow since the institution of that 

 order. 



Mrs. Phillips' labours were keenest in the 

 early days of the Society, when the 

 Committee met at Jerm3m-street in the rooms 

 of the R.S.P.C.A. and a London office was 

 yet in the futm-e. She had then the control 

 of the Society's publications ; the Aimual 

 Reports were written mainly by her practised 

 pen ; and her contributions to its literature 

 included its first leaflet " Destruction of 

 Ornamental -Plumaged Birds," " Bird Food 

 in Winter," " Mixed Plumes," " Appeal to 

 British Boys and Girls," and "' Murdeious 

 Millinery." This branch of the work, com- 

 ments the Annual Report of 1895, 



" had been in her hands since June 1891 — 

 the year in wliich the Society, then in its 

 infancy', was transferred from Manchester 

 to London. . . . After four years the 

 Society is still living and growing to justify 



