| H. Baillie-Weaver | |
| Birth Date: | 1861 |
| Birth Place: | Yorkshire |
| Death Date: | 20 March 1926 |
| Death Place: | Kingston |
| Occupation: | Barrister |
Harold Baillie-Weaver (1861 – 18 March 1926) was a British barrister, theosophist and animal welfare campaigner.
Baillie-Weaver was born in Yorkshire.[1] He was the only son of Henry Edward Weaver.[2] He studied law at the University of London where he graduated LL.B and was accepted as a student of the Inner Temple in 1885.[1] [2] He was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn on 28 January 1889.[1] [2]
He married Gertrude Baillie-Weaver in 1901.[3] Baillie-Weaver was a member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage.[3] He was general secretary of the Theosophical Society from 1916 to 1921 and was chairman of the European Theosophical Federation.[4]
Baillie-Weaver was a member of the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society, National Canine Defence League, and Our Dumb Friends' League.[4] [5] He authored a pamphlet, Horses in Warfare (1912) with Ernest Bell which expressed concerns about the welfare of horses in the Second Boer War and called for an extension of the Geneva convention to include them.[4] In 1914, he was a speaker at a Vegetarian Society meeting in Cheltenham.[6]
Baillie-Weaver and his wife lived in Newport, Essex where she was local secretary of National Canine Defence League and Our Dumb Friends' League.[4] He met Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1915 and took him under his wing. Krishnamurti resided with Baillie-Weaver and his wife at their house in Wimbledon.[7] In 1921, Baillie-Weaver was president of the Theosophical Fraternity in Education conference in Calais.[8]
Baillie-Weaver and his wife founded the National Council for Animals' Welfare which supported the opening of the first humane abattoir at Letchworth.[3] In 1933, Jessey Wade merged the Animals’ Friend Society with the National Council for Animals’ Welfare. It published the monthly magazine The Animal's Friend in London. The editors in the 1940s were Yvonne A. M. Stott and J. Leonard Cather. It's magazine was supportive of anti-vivisection and vegetarianism. The organization disbanded in 1983.
Baillie-Weaver was in ill health for a year before his death on 18 March 1926 at his residence in Wimbledon.[1] An obituary described him as "kindly, generous, courteous and the soul of chivalry. His splendid personality influenced all who came within his ken, and all those who knew him felt inspired and uplifted in his presence".[1]