Maria Dickin

Maria Elisabeth Dickin CBE (nickname Mia; 22 September 1870 – 1 March 1951) was a social reformer and an animal welfare pioneer who founded the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) in 1917. The Dickin Medal is named for her.

Early life Maria Dickin was born in 1870 in South Hackney, Middlesex (now in the London Borough of Hackney, the oldest of eight children born to William George Dickin, a Wesleyan minister, and Ellen Maria Exell Dickin.

Career Dickin taught singing as a young woman, and in 1905 compiled and published Suggestive Thoughts from the Temple (1905), a collection of sayings by London minister Reginald John Campbell.

Dickin was appointed OBE in 1929, and became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1948. In 1950, she published a memoir, The Cry of the Animal.

Dickin, whose efforts depended more on the work of amateur volunteers than trained veterinarians, was opposed by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons as "dangerous". "If you are so concerned about the proper treatment of Sick Animals of the Poor," she responded to the professional association's criticisms, "Do the same work we are doing. Instead of spending your energy and time in hindering us, spend it in dealing with this mass of misery." thumb

Personal life and legacy Dickin married her first cousin, Arnold Francis Dickin, an accountant, in 1899; they had no children. Dickin died in London in 1951 of influenzal broncho-pneumonia, aged 80 years. A commemorative blue plaque was erected by English Heritage at Dickin's birthplace, 41 Cassland Road (formerly 1 Farringdon Terrace) in Hackney in October 2015.