bring together the patronage of persons who were of social rank and committed to social reforms and he chaired a meeting that was held in November 1822 to create a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. This initial attempt however faltered and a fresh attempt to launch the Society was organized by Broome at a meeting on 16 June 1824 at Old Slaughter's Coffee House, London. Broome invited various clergy, lawyers and parliamentarians to vote on the resolution to create the Society and among those present were Thomas Fowell Buxton MP (1786-1845), William Wilberforce (1759-1833), Richard Martin, Sir James Mackintosh MP, Basil Montagu, William Mudford, Rev. George Avery Hatch (1757-1837), Rev George Bonner (1784-1840), Sir James Graham, T. G. Meymott, John Ashley Warre and Lewis Gompertz. Broome was elected as the Society's first honorary secretary. Due to Martin's profile as a politician and as the drafter of the anti-cruelty legislation, a public perception developed that he was the initiator and creator of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. At the Society's first anniversary meeting Martin set the public record straight and gave credit to Rev Broome by stating: "I have nothing at all to do with it," he said "it is quite a child of Mr. Broome's and he has acted the part of a good father to it." During 1826 the Society's debts became greater than its revenue, and Broome as the Society's guarantor was sentenced by the Kings Bench to the debtors' prison, and Martin and Gompertz raised funds to cover the debts and obtain Broome's release. Martin maintained an interest in the Society even after he left England and resettled in France. Active life Martin also had a very eventful life. He was a colonel of the County Galway Volunteers. He survived two shipwrecks. He fought over a hundred duels with sword and pistol and earned the nickname "Hairtrigger Dick". He travelled extensively in Europe and the Americas during the 1770s and was in New England when the American Revolutionary War began. He initiated Galway's first theatre in 1783. Martin was on a first-name basis with many of the famous names of his age, including King George IV (who gave him the nickname "Humanity Dick"), Henry Flood, Henry Grattan, William Pitt, Queen Caroline, and Daniel O'Connell. Despite his nickname he was considered a very harsh landlord in Ireland. On his death in