Mary Tealby

Mary Tealby (; 30 December 1801 – 3 October 1865) was an English animal welfare campaigner. She is noted for founding the Battersea Dogs' Home. It was founded in Holloway, London in 1860 and moved to Battersea in 1871.

Life Tealby was born in Huntingdon in 1801. She gained a younger brother who like her father was named Edward. He would in time be the curate at Kelmarsh in Northamptonshire. She married, Robert Chapman Tealby, in 1829. They lived in Hull and they had no children. Whilst she was there, the first branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (it became the RSPCA in 1840) was formed by a group of men. Tealby is presumed to have been a supporter. She and Robert separated and this may initially have been so that she could care for her mother in London. She died in Holloway in 1854. She kept her married name and went to live with her father and her brother.

She was still a member and supporter of the RSPCA. She cared for an abandoned dog that had been found by her friend Sarah Major, but it died and she decided to set up a place where abandoned dogs could be cared for. Initially the home was in her scullery but as the number of dogs delivered to her grew she hired some nearby stables funded by herself, her brother and Sarah Major. The costs were met by asking for donations and Tealby and Major found several generous backers. In 1860 the RSPCA agreed to assist and the committee meetings were held at the RSPCA offices at 12 Pall Mall. The Islington Gazette and the English Churchman were supportive and Punch predictably made jokes. Sarah Major and her brother reinvigorated the home after the loss of the founder. Until the 1980s the annual report started with an acknowledgement of the home's founder. In the same year, a plaque was erected in Islington.