Stephen William Buchanan Coleridge (31 May 1854 – 10 April 1936) was an English author, barrister, opponent of

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experiment ...

, and co-founder of the

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New York ...

Biography

Coleridge was the second son of

John Duke Coleridge John Duke Coleridge, 1st Baron Coleridge, Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC (3 December 1820 – 14 June 1894) was an English lawyer, judge and Liberal Party (UK), Liberal politician. He held the posts, in turn, of Solicitor General for En ...

Lord Chief Justice of England Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or a ...

, and Jane Fortescue Seymour, an accomplished artist. His grandfather was nephew to the famous poet

Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge (; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poe ...

. At fourteen he was sent to the public school

Bradfield College Bradfield College, formally St Andrew's College, Bradfield, is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils aged 11–18, located in the small village of Bradfield in the English county of Berkshire. It is note ...

; this seems to have rankled since his father, grandfather and elder brother were all educated at the more prestigious Eton. He attended

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

, where he graduated in 1878. Coleridge came to widespread public attention in England in 1903, when he publicly accused

William Bayliss Sir William Maddock Bayliss (2 May 1860 – 27 August 1924) was an English physiologist. Life He was born in Wednesbury, Staffordshire but shortly thereafter his father, a successful merchant of ornamental ironwork, moved his family to a ...

of the Department of Physiology at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

of having broken the law during an experiment on a dog, thereby sparking the

Brown Dog affair The Brown Dog affair was a political controversy about vivisection that raged in Britain from 1903 until 1910. It involved the infiltration of University of London medical lectures by Swedish feminists, battles between medical students and the ...

. Bayliss sued for

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

and was awarded damages of £2,000. Coleridge was also an accomplished landscape artist, who exhibited at the Alpine Club Gallery, the Suffolk Street galleries and the

Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

Selected publications

''Broken Gods''
(1903)
''Vivisection: A Heartless Science''
(1916)
''Great Testimony Against Scientific Cruelty''
(1918)

Gallery

Stephen Coleridge by Jane Fortescue Seymour.jpg, Coleridge, circa 1873 Vanity Fair - ELF - Anti-Vivisection - M 1238 - 1910-07-27.jpg, Coleridge caricatured by ELF for '' Vanity Fair'', 1910

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Coleridge, Stephen 1854 births 1936 deaths Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Anti-vivisectionists British activists British animal welfare scholars British barristers British writers

Stephen Stephen or Steven is a common English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; ...

National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children people People educated at Bradfield College Younger sons of barons