Not a Seal, Medallion, Dicky Bird Society, 1876, Image & Found by Chris Tilney.
Found in northwest County Durham, ?mm.
Man surrounded by children, sitting on chair with a bird perched on it, *DICKY BIRD SOCIETY* curving down ESTABLISHED IN NEWCASTLE WEEKLY CHRONICAL OCT.R. 1876 curving up around // MEMBERS PLEDGE / I HEREBY PROMISE TO BE KIND / TO ALL LIVING THINGS TO PROTECT THEM / TO THE UTMOST OF MY POWER TO FEED / THE ... IN THE WINTER TIME / AND NEVER TO TAKE OR DESTROY A NEST / I ALSO PROMISE TO GET AS MANY / GIRLS AND BOYS AS POSSIBLE / TO JOIN THE DICKY BIRD / SOCIETY, + COMMEMORATION OF + curving down ENROLMENT OF 100000 MEMBERS JULY 1886 curving up around
A Dicky Bird Society medallion. See BBC - A History of the World, "Uncle Toby, a popular character in Sterne's "Tristram Shandy" was known for his benevolence, and was the inspiration for the Dickey Bird Society which was to become one of the first mass movement bird conservation societies.
The organisation was started in 1876 by the editor William Adams of the Newcastle Weekly Chronicle, using the pen-name of Uncle Toby, to introduce the idea of the society through the newspaper's Children's Corner.
By 1900 the society had 300,000 members (including Tennyson, Florence Nightingale and Baden Powell) all agreeing to treat wild birds with kindness rather than cruelty.
The DBS grew to nearly half a million members worldwide, and effected a huge change in attitude and practice in the treatment of wild birds."
