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Joseph Stratton (1 May 1839 – 11 January 1917) was an English clergyman, humanitarian and anti-hunting activist.

Career

Stratton was born in Clifton Campville. He was the second son of John and Anne Statton. He was educated at Appleby Grammar School and Worcester College. He obtained his M.A. from Oxford.

He was ordained in 1870 and was a curate in Swansea, Burton-on-Trent, New Barnet and Winchfield. He was appointed Master of Henry Lucas’ Hospital, Wokingham from 1889 to 1917.

He married Louise Cecilia Bazalgette Lucas in 1892.

Anti-hunting

Stratton opposed blood sports and hunting. He aimed to abolish the Royal Buckhounds which he carried out with success. He was presented with a public testimonial in 1901. He was a member of the Humanitarian League’s campaign against hunting. Sidney Trist noted that threats against Stratton's life had been made by those who opposed his anti-hunting views.

He was an anti-vivisectionist and member of the Berkshire branch of the London and Provincial Anti-Vivisection Society. He was described as a "warm-hearted and tender-hearted man, who loves not only his fellow-men, but also his fellow-creatures".

Death

Stratton fell outside Wokingham Gas Works and never recovered from the effects of the accident. His funeral was held at St. Paul's Wokingham. He received a floral tribute from the Committee of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection for his "admiration and affection to the memory of a fearless and untiring champion of the rights of animals".

Selected publications

• Royal Sport: Some Facts Concerning the Queen's Buckhounds (1891)
• So-Called Sport: A Plea for Strengthening the Law for the Protection of Animals (1896)
• Vivisection and Anti-Vivisection: Which Side Must I Take? (1898)
• Sports: Legitimate and Illegitimate (1898)
• Fireside Poems (1901)
• The Attitude, Past and Present, of the R.S.P.C.A. Towards such Spurious Sports as Tame Deer Hunting, Pigeon Shooting and Coursing Rabbits (1906)

References

1. ^ "Rev. Joseph Stratton". Henry S. Salt Society. 2024. Archived from the original on October 7, 2024.
2. ^ "The Late Rev. J. Stratton". The Herald. January 20, 1917. p. 5. (subscription required)
3. "The Rev. Joseph Stratton". Evening Mail. January 15, 1917. p. 6. (subscription required)
4. "The Late Rev. J. Stratton". The Herald. March 10, 1917. p. 5. (subscription required)
5. "Anti-Vivisection". The Reading Observerh. November 5, 1910. p. 8. (subscription required)
6. "The Rev. J. Statton's Poems". Reading Mercury. December 9, 1916. p. 7. (subscription required)
7. "Funeral of the Rev. J. Stratton". The Reading Observer. January 20, 1917. p. 8. (subscription required)
8. "Funeral of the Rev. J. Stratton". The Herald. January 27, 1917. p. 5. (subscription required)

• 1839 births
• 1917 deaths
• 19th-century English clergy
• Anti-hunting activists
• English animal rights activists