Clive Hollands

Educated at St Clement Dane's School, London, and St Mary's College, Liverpool, he served in the Royal Navy from 1946 to 1953, leaving to join an American tanker company. Thirteen years later, after asking himself the question, ``What am I doing with my life?'', he left his secure position there to join the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Vivisection (SSPV, later renamed Advocates for Animals) as assistant secretary.

Once ``inside'' the animal welfare movement, Clive Hollands was bewildered -how could it be that people were capable of doing the things they did to animals and that the law permitted them? This shocked him, as did the fact that the rest of the population, knowing what went on, did nothing to stop it. The multiplicity of animal welfare societies also worried him.

It very quickly became clear to him that since nearly all legislation results from pressure on Government to act, it was important that the animal welfare organisations worked together and became a unified voice for change.

His opportunity came in 1970 when he became director of the SSPV and secretary of its sister organisation, the St Andrew Animal Fund. After years of preparation he launched the Animal Welfare Year in 1976 with himself as chairman and with the support of 67 animal welfare societies.

Its success clearly demonstrated that animal welfare societies could work together in harmony and for a common purpose. This prepared the ground for the formation of joint consultative bodies. One such body was the Committee for the Reform of Animal Experimentation (CRAE) which would later play a major role in securing new legislation on animal experiments.

Fuelled by his success, Hollands quickly became involved in planning the next joint campaign to ``Put Animals into Politics'' at the 1979 General Election. Some commentators found this slogan misplaced, prompting one to comment that: ``There are too many animals in politics already, there are snakes in the grass, leopards who cannot change their spots, elephants who never forget, and lots of parliamentarians who think they are the cat's whiskers.''

Clive and colleagues, including his friend the late Rt Hon Lord Houghton of Sowerby CH, were undeterred, and the campaign resulted in commitments to animal welfare being included for the first time in the manifestos of all the major political parties.

In 1983, Clive and Lord Houghton took CRAE into an alliance with the British Veterinary Association and the Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments. This was a master stroke, and three years later this powerful alliance was instrumental in putting on to the Statute Book new legislation governing the use of animals in research, the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, replacing an Act of Parliament over 100 years old.

During its passage through Parliament, Clive received the praises of politicians from all sides of the House for his ``outstanding role in the animal welfare movement.''

A Government spokesman expressed his ``great admiration'' for him as a committed anti-vivisectionist who had striven to make the Bill achieve the consensus it had achieved.

This consensus or compromise politics was not to the liking of some anti-vivisection groups who openly criticised him for not seeking more, while others pointed out that politics was the art of the possible.

Away from the political arena, Clive travelled throughout Britain, as well as internationally, giving lectures, taking part in debates, giving interviews, organising conferences, never missing an opportunity to inform as many people as possible of what he considered to be ``the unacceptable treatment of animals in the service of man.'' His pragmatism and realism brought him many successes and the respect of all his opponents.

Clive Hollands retired as the director of the SSPV in 1988 and became its consultant under its new name of Advocates for Animals. He retired as secretary of the St Andrew Animal Fund in 1994. During his career he had been a vice-president of the RSPCA from 1980-82 and a member of the Home Secretary's Advisory Committee on animal experiments, later to become the Animal Procedures Committee, from 1985-95. At the time of his death he was a serving member on HM Government's Farm Animal Welfare Council. He was proud to be an Honorary Associate of the British Veterinary Association and was a member of the BVA's Animal Ethics Committee. He was also involved with many voluntary bodies.

He was just as interested and concerned about human welfare and for 14 years, with his wife, Fay, ran a scout troop at a List D (approved) school in Edinburgh. They also provided a foster home to a number of children.

Clive Hollands was awarded an OBE in the 1995 New Year's Honours List in recognition of his services to animal welfare. He is survived by his wife Fay, daughter Roberta, and son Bruce.