Margaretta "Etta" Louisa Lemon (; 22 November 1860 – 8 July 1953) was an English bird conservationist and a founding member of what is now the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB). She was born into an evangelical Christian family in Kent, and after her father's death she increasingly campaigned against the use of plumage in hatmaking which had led to billions of birds being killed for their feathers. She founded the Fur, Fin and Feather Folk with Eliza Phillips in Croydon in 1889, which two years later merged with Emily Williamson's Manchester-based Society for the Protection of Birds (SPB), also founded in 1889. The new organisation adopted the SPB title, and the constitution for the merged society was written by Frank Lemon, who became its legal adviser. Etta married Frank Lemon in 1892, and as Mrs Lemon she became the first honorary secretary of the SPB, a post she kept until 1904, when the society became the RSPB.
The Lemons led the RSPB for more than three decades, although Etta's conservatism, authoritarian management and opposition to scientific ornithology increasingly led to clashes with the organisation's committee. She was pressured to resign from her leadership role in 1938, aged 79. During her tenure, the Importation of Plumage (Prohibition) Act 1921 restricted the international trade in feathers, but did not prevent their being sold or worn.
Lemon was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1920 for her management of the Redhill War Hospital during the First World War. She worked for many other organisations, including the Royal Earlswood Hospital, the Women's National Anti-Suffrage League, and the local Red Cross branch. Lemon was one of the first four female honorary members of the British Ornithologists' Union (BOU) admitted in 1909, although she never considered herself to be an ornithologist. She died at Redhill aged 92 in 1953 and was buried next to her husband at Reigate cemetery.
Early life
Margaretta Louisa Smith was born on 22 November 1860 in Hythe, Kent, to William Elisha Smith and Louisa Smith ( Barclay). William Smith was a captain of musketry in the Royal Sherwood Fusiliers, later to become the Sherwood Foresters, and was adjutant at the musketry training school in Hythe. Etta was the oldest of three children, followed by her brother Edward and sister Woltera Mercy. Etta's mother had a stillborn baby in 1866 and died giving birth in 1867, along with the newborn child. Her father married 26-year-old Mary Anne Wollaston later in the same year. Etta and Mercy (the names that the sisters preferred to be called) initially lived with Captain Smith and his second wife at their new home in Blackheath, London. At about this time, Captain Smith left the army and became honorary secretary of the Evangelisation Society from 1868 until his death in 1899. The society aimed to promote the gospel in hard-to-reach situations.
Etta was soon sent to Hill House boarding school in Belstead, Suffolk, run by Maria Umphelby—another evangelical Christian—and remained there until she was 16. She returned briefly to Blackheath before being sent to a finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland, where she became fluent in French. Her brother Edward went to study medicine at Cambridge. He later took on the name Barclay-Smith and served as a professor of anatomy.
After returning to Blackheath aged 18, Etta joined her father in his evangelical work, writing pamphlets and accompanying him on daily train journeys to London, where she learned to speak in public at evangelical meetings. On these journeys, they often met William Lemon and his son, both lawyers. The younger Lemon shared Etta's views on cruelty to animals and the practice of using birds in millinery.
The feather trade
A major threat to birds from the late eighteenth century up to just after the First World War was the demand for feathers to decorate women's hats. Although some were obtained from farmed ostriches, huge numbers of wild birds were killed for the millinery trade, many of which were egrets, leading to the trade term "aigrette" for such plumes. Many other species were also used in fashion, ranging from hummingbirds to storks and cranes.
Between 1870 and 1920, of wild bird feathers were imported into the UK, and since 150–300 birds were needed for of their decorative breeding plumes, this implied that billions of birds were killed to meet the British demand alone. Shooting breeding birds effectively led to the failure of their eggs and chicks to survive, causing actual losses to be much higher. At its peak, the British trade was worth £20 million annually, around £204 million at 2021 prices.