                          VegSocUK Information Sheet
                          THE VEGETARIAN SOCIETY (UK)

                          DEVELOPMENT OF THE MOVEMENT

   At various times throughout the history of humankind, people have registered
   their opposition to the cruel way in which animals are oppressed, and many
   have turned to a vegetarian way of life. For both ethical and economic
   reasons, countless millions of people throughout the world live on a
   vegetarian diet.

   A number of religions and beliefs have lent support to vegetarianism.
   Brahminism, Buddhism, Jainism and Zoroastrianism all advocated an abstention
   from flesh foods. More recently, the Seventh Day Adventists and The Order of
   the Cross have advocated a vegetarian diet and many Hindus and some Roman
   Catholic groups adhere to a vegetarian diet.

    Early ideas

   Some early writers express their opposition to meat eating in no uncertain
   terms.  Plutarch stated: "I am astonished to think what appetite first
   induced man to taste of a dead carcass or what motive could suggest the
   notion of nourishing himself with the flesh of animals which he saw, just
   before, bleating, bellowing, walking, and looking about them." Ovid, in the
   fifteenth book of his "Metamorphoses", puts into the mouth of Medea a
   forcible disquisition upon the Golden Age: "Blest is the produce of the trees
   and in the herbs which the earth brings forth, and the human mouth was not
   polluted with blood." Seneca, the greatest of the Stoics wrote: "To abstain
   from the flesh of animals is to foster and to encourage innocence." In a
   later statement he claimed: "I resolved to abstain from flesh meat, and at
   the end of a year the habit of abstinence was not only easy but delightful."
   Pythagoras enjoined the abstention from the flesh of animals and his
   followers formed a vegetarian community.

   Other famous early vegetarians were Diogenes, Plato, Plotinus and Socrates.
   Vegetarianism was not uncommon among early Christians, and some monastic
   orders follow a vegetarian diet to this day. Famous writers such as Voltaire,
   Paley, Pope, Shelley, Bentham and Lamartine urged the desirability of a
   humane diet. Alexander Pope expressed the opinion that: "Nothing can be more
   shocking and horrid than one of our kitchens sprinkled with blood and
   abounding with the cries of expiring victims or with the limbs of dead
   animals scattered or hung up here and there."

   Sir Richard Phillips, who died in 1842 and was High Sheriff of the county of
   Middlesex, was an ardent vegetarian from the age of twelve when he visited a
   slaughterhouse. The philanthropist and prison reformer, John Howard, was a
   practising vegetarian whose influence and concern affected many aspects of
   life in his own time and since. He claimed that his diet gave him immunity
   against "gaol fever" which was prevalent in the many filthy prisons he
   visited.

    Formation of the Vegetarian Society

   Not until the nineteenth century was there any attempt to organise a
   vegetarian movement in this country.  In 1807, the Reverend William Cowherd,
   the founder of the Bible Christian Church in Salford, advanced the principle
   of abstinence from flesh-eating. One of his followers was Mr Joseph
   Brotherton MP, who became prominent in the Vegetarian Society and became one
   of its presidents. Two followers of the Reverend Cowherd, the Reverend
   William Metcalfe and the Reverend James Clark, set sail for the United States
   with thirty-nine other members of the Bible Christian Church in 1817. Some of
   them remained vegetarian and provided a nucleus for the American vegetarian
   movement. The wife of Mr Joseph Brotherton wrote the first cookery book
   devoted to vegetarian recipes. This was published in 1812. The first
   vegetarian hospital was established in Ramsgate in 1846 with Mr and Mrs
   William Horsell, both prominent vegetarians in charge of it.

   The Vegetarian Society was formed as a result of a meeting held at the
   hospital, Northwood Villa, on 30 September 1847. A resolution was passed
   unanimously that a society be formed called the Vegetarian Society. Mr James
   Simpson became the president, Mr William Horsell the secretary and Mr William
   Oldham the treasurer. The following year the first annual meeting was held in
   Manchester at Hayward's Hotel. There were then 478 members of the Society and
   232 people attended the dinner which followed the AGM. A meeting of London
   vegetarians was held in 1849, and they decided to form a committee to spread
   vegetarianism in London. The first issue of the Vegetarian Messenger, a
   monthly penny magazine, came out in September 1849, and nearly 5000 copies
   were circulated. Mr Isaac Pitman, of shorthand fame, spoke at the second
   annual meeting of the Society in 1849 and stated that he had been a
   vegetarian for eleven years. In the 1850s meetings were held in many parts of
   the country, and a number of local branches were formed. As early as 1851 the
   slogan "live and let live" was used in the Vegetarian Messenger, and
   alternatives were being suggested to leather shoes.

   The first president of the Vegetarian Society, Mr James Simpson, died in
   1859. He had spent considerable sums of money helping the cause to develop in
   its early days. Alderman W Harvey JP followed as president. Another prominent
   vegetarian of the period was the Reverend James Clark. He became a vegetarian
   at the age of twenty-two and was associated with the movement for over forty
   years. For a long time he was the secretary of the Society. Professor F W
   Newman was president from 1873-84. He was a controversial character,
   influencing the Society to accept associate members and refusing to accept
   that anything else should be associated with vegetarianism. Until then, many
   had combined vegetarianism with a campaign against alcohol and smoking.

   In London in 1875 a Dietetic Reform Society was formed. Members abstained
   from alcohol and tobacco as well as being vegetarian. This was followed by
   the London Food Reform Society in 1877. A young doctor named T R Allinson was
   a member of the Society. Later, the Society dropped the word "London" from
   its title and became the National Food Reform Society. This led to some
   antagonism with the Vegetarian Society, but the National Food Reform Society
   merged with the Vegetarian Society in 1885, and it then became the London
   branch of the Vegetarian Society. Problems followed, and in 1888 the London
   branch broke away from the Vegetarian Society and formed the London
   Vegetarian Society, which soon flourished as a second national society. A
   paper known as "The Vegetarian" was brought out in 1888 and was followed by
   the "Vegetarian News" in 1921.

   "The Vegetarian Messenger" was renamed "The Vegetarian" in 1953, and in 1958
   the two societies decided to combine their magazines; the "Vegetarian News"
   and "The Vegetarian" were replaced by "The Britsh Vegetarian". This continued
   as a bi-monthly magazine until 1971.

   In October 1971 the new national Society launched a monthly newspaper called
   "The Vegetarian" which rapidly grew in popularity so that it achieved a
   circulation in the region of 50,000 copies each month. In 1977 the newspaper
   was replaced by an A4 format magazine. The "New Vegetarian" continued as such
   until it was renamed "Alive" in 1978 with a view to increasing the magazine's
   general appeal. However, this change of title was not popular with many
   vegetarians, and there was not the degree of support among non-vegetarians as
   had been hoped for. It ceased to be a monthly magazine and became bi-monthly,
   and in 1979 the Society's AGM decided that it wished the magazine to revert
   to its former title; so it once again became "The Vegetarian" in late 1980,
   becoming monthly in 1992 and after the advent of three rival magazines on the
   bookstalls reverting to a quarterly members only magazine in the spring of
   1993 known as VQ.

   In the nineteenth century other famous vegetarians were Mr and Mrs Bramwell
   Booth and Mr Frank Smith of the Salvation Army, Dr Anna Kingsland, Mrs Annie
   Besant, Lady Florence Dixy, George Bernard Shaw and Count Lyof N Tolstoi.
   Count Tolstoi, the eminent Russian novelist wrote: "The consumption of animal
   food is plainly immoral beccause it demands an act which does violence to our
   moral sentiments."

    The IVU and other organisations

   In 1889 the Vegetarian Federal Union was established with the aim of bringing
   together all vegetarian societies, local, national and overseas.  Mr A F
   Hills was the first chairman and Mr R E O'Callaghan was secretary. Mr Josiah
   Oldfield became secretary in 1896, and in 1897 a second International
   Congress took place in London. The International Vegetarian Union succeeded
   the Vegetarian Federal Union in 1908, and a Congress was held in Nice. Since
   then, Congresses have taken place in many parts of the world. The 28th World
   Vegetarian Congress was held at Cavtat, near Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia in 1986
   and the 1990 World Congress was held near Tel Aviv, Israel, from 17th-25th
   April 1990. In 1985 the Italian Vegetarian Society put on a very successful
   European Vegetarian Congress and from it developed the European Vegetarian
   Union.  Since then, a European Congress has been held at Ostend, Belgium in
   1987, Strasbourg, France in 1989 and Chester, England in 1991.

   Both the Vegetarian Society and the London Vegetarian Society flourished as
   national societies during this century. However, many people regretted that
   we did not have a single unified national society. Mr Montague Haines, a keen
   advocate of unification, led the move towards a single national vegetarian
   society. Finally, on 1 October 1969, the two societies amalgamated and the
   assets of the societies were taken over by the new society, The Vegetarian
   Society of the United Kingdom Limited. The Society has a property in



   Altrincham, Cheshire, and the work of the Society and its influence continue
   to grow.

   The growth of the vegetarian movement has led to the development of other
   organisations which, although not part of the Society, are nevertheless
   directly associated with our work. The Vegan Society, with its aim of
   excluding all animal products from the diet, goes further than the Vegetarian
   Society, which accepts the use of eggs and dairy produce. Elderly vegetarians
   are catered for by the homes established in various parts of the country and
   run by Homes for Elderly Vegetarians and by the home in Edinburgh run by the
   Abbeyfield Society.  Homes for Elderly Vegetarians became the Vegetarian
   Housing Association in 1990.

   The Vegetarian Home for Children in Jersey cared for children in need, and
   the Vegetarian Children's Charity, which developed from a former Home in
   Rainhill, Liverpool, adminsitered funds to help needy vegetarian children.
   Unfortunately, the Jersey Children's Home had to be wound up in the late
   1980s. The assets were combined with the Vegetarian Children's Charity in
   1986 to form a new charity, the Vegetarian Charity which aims to help young
   vegetarians up to the age of 25.

   Research into the vegetarian diet was undertaken by the Vegetarian
   Nutritional Research centre, based at Watford, under the direction of Dr
   Frank Wokes. More recently, since the passing of Dr Wokes, research activity
   has been under the guidance of the Research Section of the Vegetarian
   Society, which has now been fully incorporated into The Vegetarian Society.
   It sponsors research in hospitals, universities and other institutions of
   higher education into various aspects of the vegetarian diet and way of life.
   Its work has been greatly encouraged by the growing evidence of the health
   benefits of a vegetarian diet.

   Maxwell Lee

   ___________________________________



//
This article is copyright to the Vegetarian Society (UK), but may be freely
copied for non-commercial use provided it is kept intact, not altered
and these lines are included.

For futher information contact: The Vegetarian Society, Parkdale, Dunham Road,
Altrincham, Cheshire WA14 4QG, England. Tel: (England) 061 928 0793
email: vegsoc@vegsoc.demon.co.uk
//



[The text of this file was obtained from the Vegetarian Society (UK) in
March 1995.]

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