Annie Bradshaw

Annie Cropper Bradshaw (born Annie Cropper; 1859 – 23 May 1938), who wrote under the names Anne M. Tree and Mrs. Albert S. Bradshaw, was an English novelist, elocutionist and animal welfare activist. She was active in Our Dumb Friends' League for many years and co-founded the Performing Animals' Defence League.

Life

Annie Cropper was born in 1859 and was raised in Nottingham. Her father was John Cropper a literacy man. Albert was the proprietor of the Nottingham Journal which his father had founded a century before.

Bradshaw's poem "Good-bye, Old Man" written during WW1 with a musical setting by Frederic Dale for the Blue Cross Fund sold well. She died on 23 May 1938.

Animal welfare

Bradshaw was known for her work on promoting the cause of animal protection.

She co-founded the Performing Animals' Defence League with Ernest Bell in 1914. She gave evidence in the House of Commons and supported the passing of a Bill dealing with the prohibition of performing animals. Bradshaw sat on the executive committee of the Performing Animals' Defence League. She was highly critical of Lord Lonsdale a patron of the Performing Animals Defence League but also a supporter of the circus. In 1923, Bradshaw and others called for his resignation. In 1923, she commented that "supporters of the League could not understand why Lord Lonsdale should be a patron of a society to put down performances which he upheld. The League is against performing animals of any kind".

Bradshaw was an anti-vivisectionist and vegetarian. She was a vice-president of the London Vegetarian Society. In 1911, she was a speaker at the Croydon Vegetarian Society's annual dinner. In 1912 Bradshaw, Alexandra Avierino and E. Douglas Hume attended the London Vegetarian Society's bazaar and "Humane Dress Fair" at the Memorial Hall on Farringdon Street. They all wore "humane furs and feathers" which did not involve the death or pain of any creature. Non-leather boots were shown at the fair and a special vegetarian Christmas dinner was served. In 1910, she received a gold medal from the League for six years of her work. In 1923, Bradshaw and several other members accused the League's Ground Council of animal neglect as their North London Dog's Home was in an "insanitary and disgraceful condition". A public protest was held at the Mortimer Hall off Regent Street in which the Grand Council were asked to reply to the allegations.

In 1925, Bradshaw and other members accused the League of mismanaging funds. The allegation was that funds had been extravagantly administered and improperly spent. They called into question an item of £188 for the funeral of the late secretary Arthur Coke, as the expense was paid without authority from the League. The late secretary was on a salary of £600 with bonuses. Lord Lonsdale president of the League denied all allegations. The case went to court.

The legal outcome was a report from the Committee of Inquiry into the management of the League. The report found that "several irregularities of procedure under the regulations of the Grand Council of Our Dumb Friends' League were proved to have occurred". The report also noted that the North London Dog's Home was now in a "sanitary and satisfactory condition".

Selected publications

Bradshaw authored many novels; a list was compiled in Who Was Who in Literature, 1906-1934.

A Crimson Stain (1885) False Gods: A Novel (1887) Wife or Slave? (1890) The Gates of Temptation: A Natural Novel (Minerva Publishing, 1892) Ashes Tell No Tales (1906) The Rags of Morality (1911) Murder at the Boarding House (1936)