Many charities attribute their existence to inspired individuals with a burning ambition to bring about change.
PDSA owes its foundation to the vision of one woman - Maria Elisabeth Dickin - and her determination to raise the status of animals and the standard of their care.
During the First World War, Maria Dickin worked in London as a social worker. She was horrified by the dreadful state of animal health in the Whitechapel area of London and, following the death of her dog, she decided to open a clinic where East Enders living in poverty could receive free treatment for their sick and injured animals.
Each request for financial and practical support was flatly refused. Unrelenting in her crusade Maria responded: 'Have you ever suffered pain until you did not know how to bear it any longer? Animals suffer like that only they are not able to say so!'
Finally, on Saturday 17 November 1917, Maria opened her first 'People's Dispensary for Sick Animals of the Poor'. Outside the dimly lit cellar in the Whitechapel district of London, a notice read:
Bring your sick animals.
Do not let them suffer.
All animals treated.
All treatment free.
To mark our 90th anniversary, over the following pages we take a look at some of the milestones in the history of the UK's leading veterinary charity.
1917 - 1929 / 1930 - 1959 / 1960 - 1979 / 1980 - 1989 / 1990 - 2007
