Alice Lewis
Alice Marie Drakoules (née Lambe; other married name Lewis; c. 1850 – 15 January 1933) was a British social reformer, humanitarian, and writer. Active in campaigns for animal welfare, anti-vivisection, and vegetarianism, she founded a Band of Mercy around 1887, helped to establish the Humanitarian League in 1891, and served as its honorary treasurer for nearly three decades. She also worked with the Vegetarian Society, the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society, and later supported the League for the Prohibition of Cruel Sports.
Drakoules published in The Women's Penny Paper and The Vegetarian, including the essays "The Rights of the Non-Human Races" (1889) and "The Ethics of Diet" (1892). She also published the pamphlet Humanity and Vegetarianism in 1892. Her writings urged compassion towards animals, criticised meat production and vivisection, and linked moral reform, including women's emancipation, to "pity and mercy". With her second husband, the Greek reformer Platon Drakoules, she promoted humanitarian and dietary reform in southern Europe and represented Greece at the third World Vegetarian Congress in 1910. Known for organisational work more than public speaking, she is described by historian Hilda Kean as a "spiritual mother" of the British humanitarian movement, and was later commemorated with a memorial birdbath in St John's Wood churchyard.
Similar Artists