Anna Kingsford facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Anna Kingsford
|
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Anna Bonus
16 September 1846 |
| Died | 22 February 1888 (aged 41) London, England
|
| Resting place | Saint Eata's churchyard, Atcham |
| Education | Medical degree |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Occupation | Editor, The Lady's Own Paper |
| Known for | Anti-vivisectionist, vegetarian campaigner |
|
Notable work
|
The Perfect Way in Diet |
| Spouse(s) | Algernon Godfrey Kingsford |
| Children | 1 daughter |
| Signature | |
 |
|
Anna Kingsford (born Anna Bonus; 16 September 1846 – 22 February 1888) was an English activist. She fought against vivisection (animal testing), promoted vegetarianism, and supported women's rights.
She was one of the first English women to earn a medical degree. She was also the only medical student at that time to graduate without doing any experiments on animals. Anna studied in Paris for six years, finishing her degree in 1880. She wanted to use her medical knowledge to speak up for animals.
Her final paper was about the benefits of eating only plants. It was published as The Perfect Way in Diet (1881). That same year, she started the Food Reform Society. She traveled around the UK and to other countries like France and Switzerland. She spoke out against animal testing everywhere she went.
Anna was also interested in spiritual ideas like Buddhism and Gnosticism. She joined the Theosophical movement in England. In 1883, she became the president of the London branch of the Theosophical Society. She later founded the Hermetic Society in 1884, which lasted until 1887.
Anna believed she received special insights in trance-like states or in her sleep. Her friend, Edward Maitland, collected these writings. They were published after her death in a book called Clothed with the Sun (1889). Anna was often sick throughout her life. She died at age 41 from a lung disease, which started after she got pneumonia.
Contents
Early Life and Interests
Anna Kingsford was born in Maryland Point, Stratford. This area is now part of east London. Her father, John Bonus, was a rich merchant. Her brother, John Bonus, became a doctor and was also a vegetarian.
Anna was a very smart child. She wrote her first poem when she was nine years old. By age thirteen, she had written a story called Beatrice: a Tale of the Early Christians. It is said that Anna used to enjoy foxhunting. However, one day she had a vision where she saw herself as the fox. After this, she stopped hunting.
Her friend Edward Maitland said Anna could "see apparitions." She could also guess what people were like and what might happen to them. She learned to keep these special abilities quiet.
In 1867, when she was 21, Anna married her cousin, Algernon Godfrey Kingsford. A year later, they had a daughter named Eadith. Even though her husband was an Anglican priest, Anna became a Catholic in 1872.
Anna wrote articles for a magazine called "Penny Post" from 1868 to 1873. Her father left her money, and in 1872, she bought The Lady's Own Paper. She became its editor. This job allowed her to meet important women of her time. One of them was Frances Power Cobbe, a writer and feminist who also opposed animal testing. An article by Cobbe in Anna's paper made Anna very interested in the topic of vivisection.
Medical Studies and Animal Rights
In 1873, Anna met Edward Maitland, a writer who shared her views. With her husband's approval, Anna and Edward began working together. Edward went with her to Paris when she decided to study medicine. At that time, Paris was a major center for studying how the body works. Many of these studies involved experiments on animals, especially dogs. Often, these animals were not given painkillers.
One famous scientist in Paris was Claude Bernard. He is known as the "father of physiology." He once said that a scientist focused on an idea does not hear animal cries or see blood. He only sees his idea.
Many people in Victorian England were against vivisection. They were shocked by the experiments happening in France. Scientists like Bernard were criticized for their work. British activists even went to lectures in Paris. They would shout at scientists who dissected dogs without painkillers. Bernard's own wife was strongly against his research. She even divorced him and started a society against animal testing.
This was the difficult environment Anna Kingsford faced when she arrived in Paris. Being a woman made it even harder. Women were allowed to study medicine in France, but they were not always welcomed. Anna wrote to her husband in 1874 about her experience:
Things are not going well for me. My boss at the Charité really dislikes women students. He showed it today. About a hundred men (and only me as a woman) went around the hospital wards. When we all stood before him to write our names, he called everyone's name except mine, then closed his book. I stepped forward and quietly said, "And me, Sir. " He turned sharply and cried, "You, you are neither man nor woman; I don't want to write your name. " I stood silent in the middle of a quiet room."
Anna was very upset by the sights and sounds of animal experiments. On August 20, 1879, she wrote:
I have found my Hell here in the Faculté de Médecine of Paris. It is a Hell more real and awful than any I have seen. It is like the dreams of old monks. This idea came to me one day when I was sitting in the school's museum. My head was in my hands, trying to block out the sad shrieks and cries coming up the stairs. Every now and then, a scream more heartbreaking than the rest reached me. Sweat broke out on my forehead and hands. I prayed, "Oh God, take me out of this Hell; do not let me stay in this awful place."
Anna became a vegetarian after her brother John Bonus suggested it. She was also a vice-president of the Vegetarian Society.
Later Life and Death
One of her biographers, Alan Pert, wrote that Anna Kingsford got caught in heavy rain in Paris in November 1886. She was on her way to the lab of Louis Pasteur, a famous scientist who used vivisection. She reportedly spent hours in wet clothes. This led to her getting pneumonia, which then turned into pulmonary tuberculosis, a serious lung disease.
She traveled to the Riviera and Italy, sometimes with Edward Maitland, sometimes with her husband. She hoped a different climate would help her get better, but it did not. In July 1887, she moved to a house in Kensington, London, and waited to die. Even though she was very ill, her mind remained active.
Anna Kingsford died on 22 February 1888, at the age of 41. She was buried in the churchyard of Saint Eata's, an old church in Atcham. This was her husband's church. Her name at death was recorded as Annie Kingsford.
Works
Books
- River Reeds (a book of poems), 1866.
- Rosamunda the princess, and other tales. James Parker & Co., 1875.
- Kingsford, A. & Maitland, E. The Key of the Creeds. Trubner, 1875.
- Astrology Theologised, 1886.
- Health, Beauty and the Toilet: Letters to Ladies from a Lady Doctor. F. Warne, 1886.
- Dreams and Dream Stories. 1888.
- Clothed with the Sun. J. M. Watkins, 1912.
- The Credo of Christendom and other Addresses and Essays on Esoteric Christianity. 1916.
- The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ. Watkins, 1909.
- The Perfect Way in Diet. Kegan Paul, Trench & Co., 1881.
- Kingsford, A. & Maitland, E. Addresses & Essays On Vegetarianism. John M Watkins, 1912.
Chapters
- "Unscientific science—moral aspects of vivisection" in Colville, W. J. Spiritual Therapeutics Or Divine Science. 1890, pp. 292–308.
- "The Uselessness of Vivisection," 1882, in Hamilton, Susan. (ed.) Animal Welfare & Anti-vivisection 1870–1910: Nineteenth Century Woman's Mission. Taylor & Francis, 2004.
- "The City of Blood" in Forward, Stephanie. (ed.) Dreams, Visions and Realities. Continuum International, 2003.
See Also
In Spanish: Anna Kingsford para niños
- Brown Dog affair
- Ecofeminism
- Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
- Isabelle de Steiger
- List of animal rights advocates
- Louise Lind-af-Hageby
- Theosophy and Christianity
