View source for Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton

{{Short description|Duchess of Hamilton during the early 20th century}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_prefix = [[Her Grace]]
| name = The Duchess of Hamilton
| image = Duchess Hamilton LCCN2014685842.jpg
| caption = ''Photograph of the Duchess of Hamilton from the [[Library of Congress]]''
| birth_name = Nina Mary Benita Poore
| birth_date = {{birth date|1878|5|13|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Nether Wallop]], [[Hampshire]], England
| death_date = {{dda|1951|1|12|1878|5|13|df=y}}
| death_place =
| spouse = {{marriage|[[Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton]]|1901|1940|end=d.}}
| children = [[Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton]]<br>Lady Jean Douglas-Hamilton<br>[[George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk]]<br>Lady Margaret Douglas-Hamilton<br>[[Malcolm Avendale Douglas-Hamilton|Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton]]<br>[[Lord David Douglas-Hamilton]]<br>Lady Mairi Nina Douglas-Hamilton
| parents = Major Robert Poore<br>Juliana Benita Lowry-Corry
}}
'''Nina Mary Benita Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton''' (née '''Nina Mary Benita Poore'''; 13 May 1878 – 12 January 1951) was a Scottish peeress of English birth and [[animal welfare]] activist. She campaigned for humane slaughter.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0002881%2F19251215&page=11 |title=A Temple of Justice: Model Abattoir at Letchworth|newspaper= Beds and Herts Pictorial and Tuesday Telegraph|date=December 15, 1925|page=11}} {{subscription required}}</ref><ref name="Slaughter Houses">{{cite news|url= https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000560%2F19310723&page=7|title=Slaughter Houses A Disgrace|newspaper=The Daily Mirror |date=July 23, 1931|page=7}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
==Early life==
[[File:Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Speaight, CL 24 No. 617, 1908.jpg|thumb|upright|The Duchess of Hamilton with her second daughter, Margaret]]
Douglas-Hamilton was born on 13 May 1878 in [[Nether Wallop]], Hampshire. She was the youngest daughter<ref name=":0" /> of Major Robert Poore and Juliana Benita Lowry-Corry; her mother was a daughter of Rear Admiral [[Armar Lowry Corry]].<ref name=ODNB>{{cite ODNB |id=47021 |title=Hamilton, Nina Mary Benita Douglas- [née Nina Mary Benita Poore], duchess of Hamilton and Brandon (1878–1951), animal welfare activist |last1=Wynne-Tyson|first1=Jon |year=2004}}</ref>
==Personal life==
Three years after her brother, Major [[Robert Poore]], married Flora Douglas-Hamilton, on 4 December 1901 Nina married Flora's brother [[Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton]], at the parish church of [[Newton Tony]], Wiltshire, not far from her parents' home at [[Winterslow]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite newspaper The Times |title=Court Circular |date=5 December 1901 |page=6 |issue=36630 |column=a |url=https://link-gale-com.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/apps/doc/CS100854149/TTDA?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-TTDA&xid=c77794e1 |access-date=2 August 2023}}</ref> Together, they were the parents of four sons and three daughters:
* [[Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton]]
* [[Lady Jean Douglas-Hamilton]]
* [[George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk]]
* [[Lady Margaret Douglas-Hamilton]]
* [[Malcolm Avendale Douglas-Hamilton|Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton]]
* [[Lord David Douglas-Hamilton]]
* [[Lady Mairi Nina Douglas-Hamilton]]
Douglas-Hamilton was very proud of her father's work in helping agricultural labourers at Winterslow and was philanthropic towards the group, but kept her gifts secret from all but the recipients. Another gift was sufficient to completely equip and furnish a home for nurses at [[Bo'ness]], West Lothian.<ref name=ODNB />
She was a member of the [[Spiritualists' National Union]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000290%2F19510113&page=2 |title=Animals' Friend Dead|newspaper=The Evening News |date=January 13, 1951|page=2}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
===Animal welfare===
Duchess of Hamilton was a co-founder in 1906 of the [[Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society]], with [[Lizzy Lind af Hageby]], a society which set up three veterinary hospitals for horses during [[World War I]], and campaigned against cruelty to animals including the use of animals in war.<ref name="ABC"/><ref name="ODNB"/> In 1912, she became a founder of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection, which went on to become [[Advocates for Animals]].<ref name="ABC">{{cite book |last1=Rappaport|first1=Helen |author-link=Helen Rappaport |title=Encyclopedia of Women Social Reformers |date=2001 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |location=Santa Barbara, Calif. &c. |isbn=9781576071014 |page=393 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rpuSzowmIkgC |language=en |via=books.google.com |access-date=2 August 2023}}</ref> She also established [[Ferne Animal Sanctuary]], at [[Ferne House]] in Dorset, the estate she and her husband owned.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McSmith |first1=Andy |title=Press dynasty is coming home from exile to a '£6m' mansion |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/1999/jun/13/theobserver.uknews2 |work=The Guardian |date=12 June 1999 |access-date=2 August 2023}}</ref> She compiled an illustrated book related to the sanctuary called ''Chronicles of Ferne'', published in 1951.<ref name="ODNB" /> At the beginning of the [[Second World War]] she opposed pet-culling that was being encouraged by civil defence authorities, that led to what became known as the "[[British pet massacre]]" in 1939 and 1940, and caused her to shelter many cats at Ferne.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Feeney-Hart |first1=Alison |title=The little-told story of the massive WWII pet cull |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24478532 |publisher=BBC News |access-date=7 September 2021 |date=12 October 2013}}</ref>
Douglas-Hamilton was an advocate of humane slaughter. She campaigned for "human killers" and opposed the use of the knife and [[poleaxe]] in the slaughterhouse.<ref name="Slaughter Houses"/> In 1925, it was reported that she had witnessed 52 animals being slaughtered in a single afternoon in pursuance of the statutory use of the humane killer.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004755%2F19250807&page=7|title=Humane Slaughter|newspaper= The Southwark and Bermondsey Recorder and South London Gazette|date=August 7, 1925|page=7}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
Douglas-Hamilton was chief promoter of the Animal Defence Society's "Model Humane Abattoir", established in [[Letchworth]] in 1928. The humane abattoir received many donations.<ref>{{cite news|url= https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0003212%2F19251219&page=6|title=Will you help to build the Model Abattoir at Letchworth?|newspaper=The Daily News |date=December 19, 1925|page=6}} {{subscription required}}</ref> On creation of the humane abattoir, Douglas-Hamilton commented that "in a civilized country, a slaughterhouse need not be a place of horror, into which animals are driven by kicks and tail-twistings. We ask for mercy to animals, for decency, for cleanliness, and, above all a swift and painless death".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0004848%2F19251208&page=9 |title=Clergyman to Bless an Abattoir|newspaper=Daily Express |date=December 8, 1925|page=}} {{subscription required}}</ref> Douglas-Hamilton was a vegetarian in her personal life but in 1928 became the head of a humane butcher's shop.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000733%2F19280808&page=11 |title=Duchess as Butcher|newspaper=The Falkirk Herald|date=August 8, 1928|page=}} {{subscription required}}</ref> In 1931, she stated that "we should ask for the first step to needful reform. This is the use in every slaughterhouse of the mechanically operated humane killer, through which death is made swift and painless".<ref name="Slaughter Houses"/>
In May 1950, she opened a maternity home for cats at her Dorset home, where she looked after 40 cats that were mostly strays.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000378%2F19510113&page=2 |title=Duchess was Animals' Friend|newspaper=Hartlepool Mail |date=January 13, 1951|page=2}} {{subscription required}}</ref> In June 1950, she attended an international animal welfare conference at Genova.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000540%2F19510113&page=6 |title=Nina, Duchess of Hamilton: Death of Animal Welfare Pioneer|newspaper=The Scotsman |date=January 13, 1951|page=6}} {{subscription required}}</ref>
==Death==
Douglas-Hamilton refused to be operated on for a throat condition due to her opinions on medical research, and when the condition worsened, she refused [[antibiotic]]s. The condition led to her death on 12 January 1951, at her London house. The funeral service was held in [[Salisbury Cathedral]] and the burial was at [[Berwick St John]], near Shaftesbury.<ref name=ODNB />
==Legacy==
A [[Princess Coronation Class]] steam locomotive was named after her, which is on static display at the [[National Railway Museum]], York. The Duchess Nina Institute in the village of [[Quarter, South Lanarkshire|Quarter]], near Hamilton, Scotland, was a gift to the villagers by the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton and was formally opened on 24 September 1910.
==See also==
* [[Women and animal advocacy]]
==Notes==
{{Reflist}}
== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20040405002015/http://www.quarter-lanarkshire.supanet.com/duchess%20nina.htm The Duchess Nina Institute] – ''Hamilton Observer'', 1 October 1910
* {{cite web |last=Marek |first=Miroslav |url=http://genealogy.euweb.cz/hamilton/hamilton20.html |title= hamilton/hamilton20.html<!-- Bot generated title --> |publisher= Genealogy.EU}}
{{Animal welfare}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas-Hamilton, Nina, Duchess of Hamilton}}
[[Category:1878 births|Hamilton, Nina Mary Benita Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of]]
[[Category:1951 deaths|Hamilton, Nina Mary Benita Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of]]
[[Category:British animal welfare workers]]
[[Category:English anti-vivisectionists]]
[[Category:English duchesses by marriage|Hamilton, Nina Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of]]
[[Category:English people of Irish descent]]
[[Category:Keepers of animal sanctuaries]]
[[Category:People from Hampshire (before 1974)|Douglas-Hamilton, Nina Mary Benita]]