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Muriel Dowding, Baroness Dowding (Albino; other married name Whiting; 22 March 1908 – 20 November 1993) was an English humanitarian and animal rights activist known for championing anti-vivisection, improvement of animal welfare and vegetarianism. Like her second husband Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding she was a vegetarian, an anti-vivisectionist, spiritualist and Theosophist. She coined the term cruelty-free and was a pioneer of the cruelty-free movement.

In 1959, she founded Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC) to highlight the suffering of animals in the fur and cosmetic trade and led the way in the commercial production of synthetic alternatives to fur and cruelty-free cosmetics. Dowding was a long-time President of the National Anti-Vivisection Society (NAVS) and vice-president of the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA). . In 1969, she cofounded the International Association against Painful Experiments on Animals (IAAPEA).

Early life and marriage
Dowding was born Muriel Albino, in Paddington, London and the eldest of two daughters of John Angelo Albino (whose family came from the Province of Como, Italy) and Hilda Gertrude Albino (née Barnes). Her first school was Mr Thomas’ School for the Sons of Gentlemen, in Porchester Terrace, London and was the only girl on the roll. Her parents separated when she was 8 and later divorced and she went to live with family friends, returning to her mother aged 15. She had an unconventional childhood and was greatly influenced by her mother’s theosophical and spiritualist views, who as a vegetarian, an astrologer and a trained spiritual healer, held a weekly prayer healing circle at their home which Dowding and her sister Kathleen (Tottie) joined. Like her mother, she went on to become a Lecture Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Tunbridge Wells, set up her own absent healing circle and became involved with the White Eagle Lodge, a spiritualist association, becoming close to its founder Grace Cooke with shared ideals about non-violence to all animal life.

Her first husband, Jack Maxwell Whiting, went missing in action during World War II in Denmark. She contacted Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding about her husband's mission. They later married.

Lady Dowding used her prominent social position to advance animal welfare. She hosted regular Sunday lunch parties introducing influential people to vegetarian food, and her house was a sanctuary for animals in need.

Lady Dowding died in 1993 and her ashes were buried with her second husband in Westminster Abbey.

Publications

 * The Psychic Life of Muriel, the Lady Dowding: An Autobiography (1980) [Foreword by Victor Goddard]