Maria Dickin (Mia to her friends) was born in London in 1870. She was the daughter of a Free Church minister and the eldest of eight children.
She was a bright, confident and independent-minded young woman who was never afraid to voice her beliefs. Driven by the zeal of her spiritualist faith and a determination to contribute to the family's meagre income, Maria decided to take a job. Women of her class in 1890's Britain were not expected to work but she ignored convention and opened a sucessful voice production studio in Wimpole Street, which attracted the patronage of famous singers of the day, including Clara Butt.
At the age of 28, Maria married her first cousin, Arnold Dickin. Arnold was an ambitious chartered accountant and, as his wife, Maria was encouraged to give up her work in order to look after the household. Intelligent, witty and supportive, she possessed and exercised all the social graces of a society wife. At the couple's home in Hampstead Heath dinner guests would often include high profile personalities from the world of commerce, politics and the legal profession. However, giving up work left a gap in Maria's life.
In need of fulfilment, she launched herself into social work. Visiting the poor of London's East End she was horrified by the dire poverty she witnessed, but it was the sight of animals suffering in silence that she found unbearable. In the streets dogs and cats, raw with mange and often dragging broken limbs, scavenged from the gutters.
Animals, such as goats and rabbits, huddled sick and injured in back yards. The horses and donkeys of costermongers and coal hawkers often worked lame and crippled by heavy loads.
Maria's sheltered Victorian upbringing simply had not prepared her for what she encountered in the homes of the poor. Later, in her book The Cry of the Animal she recalled the scene:
'The suffering and misery of these poor, uncared-for creatures in our overcrowded areas was a revelation to me. I had no idea it existed, and it made me indescribably miserable.'
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