Animal welfare activist Maria Dickin provided veterinary care for the pets of poor Londoners, and founded a charity – the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) – that continues her good work today. A blue plaque commemorates her at the house at 41 Cassland Road, Hackney, where she was born.

Maria Dickin was born in Hackney in 1870. She spent the early years of her life at what was then 1 Farringdon Terrace (now 41 Cassland Road), in a mid-19th-century end of terrace house. Her father was a Methodist preacher at a church, now gone, that stood next door.

Dickin married her cousin Arnold Dickin in 1899 and they lived in Streatham, in Purley and then Hampstead Heath but she was drawn back to East London to do voluntary work.

All animals treated

While working with the poor residents of the East End, Dickin noticed that many of their animals were in a sorry condition. Her own dog had recently died, and she felt strongly that she wanted to do something to prevent others suffering. On 17 November 1917, she opened her first ‘People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals of the Poor’ in a Whitechapel basement. She advertised its services with a sign reading ‘Bring your sick animals. Do not let them suffer. All animals treated. All treatment free.’

Some people thought that the venture would fail because the poor either did not care or would not be able to take the time to take their animals in. Dickin proved them wrong, as large numbers of people came and queued for hours at the clinic.

Growth of the PDSA

Dickin toured the country in a caravan to promote her aims. Less than a decade after the first clinic opened, there were more than 50 clinics and three caravans treating more than 400,000 patients. Dickin opened premises in other countries and obtained generous bequests from wealthy animal lovers. In 1928, she opened a sanatorium in Ilford, Essex, with an operating theatre and modern technology, such as an x-ray machine.

Dickin was adept at publicity and won support through activities such as creating the largest Christmas pudding in the world and setting up a ‘Busy Bees’ club for children to learn how to care for their pets. She was appointed OBE in 1929.

Improving access to veterinary care

In the early 1930s, Dickin was described as ‘dangerous and energetic’ by veterinarians because her organisation used more amateur volunteers than trained veterinary surgeons. She replied to criticisms by challenging professionals to do more charitable work, and defended the reputation of the PDSA with a successful legal action.

Relations between the PDSA and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons thawed in the late 1930s and they began to collaborate. Dickin and the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals have been credited with making small animal clinics more respected and widespread in the UK, and after 1949 the PDSA employed only qualified vets in its clinics.

Later life and death

During the Second World War, with approval from the War Office, Dickin created a medal to recognise animal bravery. The medal, which is considered the animals’ Victoria Cross, became known as the Dickin Medal and has been awarded to dogs, pigeons, horses, and a cat named Simon.

Dickin died in 1951 at her home in later life, Lansdowne House in Kensington, which bears an unusual plaque commemorating eight artists. The PDSA continues to flourish and provides millions of free treatments every year.

Further reading

• Andrew Gardiner, ‘The ‘dangerous’ women of animal welfare: how British veterinary medicine went to the dogs’, Social History of Medicine, 27 (2014), 466-487
• Brian Harrison, ‘Dickin, Maria Elisabeth (1870–1951)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2010) (access with a UK public library card)
• ‘Our History’, PDSA