| Honorific Prefix: | Her Grace |
| The Duchess of Hamilton | |
| Birth Name: | Nina Mary Benita Poore |
| Birth Date: | 13 May 1878 |
| Birth Place: | Nether Wallop, Hampshire, England |
| Children: | Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton Lady Jean Douglas-Hamilton George Douglas-Hamilton, 10th Earl of Selkirk Lady Margaret Douglas-Hamilton Lord Malcolm Douglas-Hamilton Lord David Douglas-Hamilton Lady Mairi Nina Douglas-Hamilton |
| Parents: | Major Robert Poore Juliana Benita Lowry-Corry |
Nina Mary Benita Douglas-Hamilton, Duchess of Hamilton (née Nina Mary Benita Poore; 13 May 1878 – 12 January 1951) was a Scottish peeress of English birth and animal rights activist.
Douglas-Hamilton was born on 13 May 1878 in Nether Wallop, Hampshire. She was the youngest daughter of Major Robert Poore and Juliana Benita Lowry-Corry; her mother was a daughter of Rear Admiral Armar Lowry Corry.[1]
Three years after her brother, Major Robert Poore, married Flora Douglas-Hamilton, on 4 December 1901 Nina married Flora's brother Alfred Douglas-Hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton, at the parish church of Newton Tony, Wiltshire, not far from her parents' home at Winterslow.[2] Together, they were the parents of four sons and three daughters:
Douglas-Hamilton refused to be operated on for a throat condition due to her opinions on medical research, and when the condition worsened, she refused antibiotics. The condition led to her death on 12 January 1951, at her London house. The funeral service was held in Salisbury Cathedral and the burial was at Berwick St John, near Shaftesbury.
Douglas-Hamilton was very proud of her father's work in helping agricultural labourers at Winterslow and was philanthropic towards the group, but kept her gifts secret from all but the recipients. Another gift was sufficient to completely equip and furnish a home for nurses at Bo'ness, West Lothian.
She was a co-founder in 1903 of the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society, with Lizzy Lind af Hageby, a society which set up three veterinary hospitals for horses during World War I, and campaigned against cruelty to animals including the use of animals in war. In 1912 she became a founder of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection, which went on to become Advocates for Animals.[3] She also established Ferne Animal Sanctuary, at Ferne House in Dorset, the estate she and her husband owned.[4] She compiled an illustrated book related to the sanctuary called Chronicles of Ferne, published in 1951. At the beginning of the Second World War she opposed pet-culling that was being encouraged by civil defence authorities, that led to what became known as the "British pet massacre" in 1939 and 1940, and caused her to shelter many cats at Ferne.[5]
A Princess Coronation Class steam locomotive was named after her, which is on static display at the National Railway Museum, York. The Duchess Nina Institute in the village of Quarter, near Hamilton, Scotland, was a gift to the villagers by the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton and was formally opened on 24 September 1910.