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Josiah Oldfield
TDMRCSLRCP
Born(1863-02-28)28 February 1863
Shrewsbury,England
Died2 February 1953(1953-02-03)(aged 89)
Doddington, Kent,England
Occupation(s)Physician, writer
Spouse
Gertrude Hick
​
​
(m.1899, separated)​
Children2

Josiah OldfieldTDMRCSLRCP(23 February 1863 – 2 February 1953) was an Englishlawyer,physicianand promoter offruitarianism.He became a versatile author, a prolific writer of popular books on dietary and health topics.[1]

Early life

The son of David Oldfield ofRyton, Shropshire,he was born on 28 February 1863 inShrewsbury.[2][3]He was educated atNewport Grammar School.[4]He then taught as an assistant master atChipping Campden School.[5][6]

Matriculating in 1882 at theUniversity of Oxfordas a non-collegiate student, Oldfield graduated B.A. in 1885, with second-class honours in civil law and theology.[2][3]While there, he became a vegetarian and concluded meat-eating was unnecessary;[2]and befriendedMahatma Gandhi.[4]

Oldfield wascalled to the barbyLincoln's Inn,and practised as a barrister on the Oxford court circuit.[2]He then studied medicine atSt. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical Schooland qualified in 1897.[2]

Oldfield and vegetarianism

Oldfield was President of the West London Food Reform Society, a vegetarian group based inBayswater,founded in 1891.[7]Edwin Arnoldwas vice-President and Gandhi was Secretary.[8]He was associated with theLondon Vegetarian Society(LVS) and editor for their publication,The Vegetarian.Oldfield was also the secretary of theVegetarian Federal Union.[9]He was a member of theOrder of the Golden Ageand theHumanitarian League.[9][10]

In 1895, Oldfield searched for alternatives toleatherfor boots, experimenting with boots made fromIndia rubber,gutta-percha, andasbestos.He found faults with all of those substances, but expressed optimism about a "vegetarian" boot.[11]That year he submitted a paper on vegetarian boots to the autumn congress of theVegetarian Federal Unionheld in Birmingham.[12]

The entry "Vegetarianism" in theEncyclopædia Britannica(11th edition, 1911) was written by Oldfield; but he did not identify as a vegetarian. He stated that "I object absolutely to vegetarianism, because the word smacks of onions and cabbage. It gives people the idea that you live on watercress and browse on odds and ends of garbage."[13]

Fruitarianism

Oldfield advocated forfruitarianism,putting him at odds with theVegetarian Society.[13]His "fruitarianism" was close toovo-lacto vegetarianism.He opposedslaughterhousesandvivisection.[14]He was a member of the Fruitarian Society, whose members lived on "the produce of harvest field, garden, forest and orchard, with milk, butter, cheese, eggs and honey".[4]This type of fruitarian diet was not a strict type of fruitarianism. A reviewer in 1909, noted that "as fruitarian dietary includes milk, butter, eggs, cheese, and honey, along with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, healthy existence is quite possible for Dr Oldfield and his followers."[15]A recipe of his "Margaret Plum Pudding" was included inCecilia Maria de Candia's cookbook,The Kitchen Garden and the Cook(1913).[16]

Oldfield was not avegan.He recommended a daily diet of dandelion leaves, eggs, grapes, honey, lettuce, milk, salad, and watercress.[17]In 1931, he commented that "I am proud to say that the only point on which we of the Fruitarian Society disagree with Mr. Gandhi is that Mr. Gandhi will not eat eggs, because they contain Life."[18]

Hospital founder

While he was a medical student, Oldfield was involved with the Oriolet Hospital, founded in 1895 inLoughton,Essex. It required vegetarianism of its patients.[19]The hospital was endorsed by the Order of the Golden Age, and partly funded byArnold Hills.Oldfield admitted patients there, initially employed with title Warden, supported by a medical officer.[5][20]Gertrude Hick, the nurse whom Oldfied later married, was trained in London and appointed sister in charge at the hospital in early 1895.[21]By 1904 it had become the Oriolet Hygienic Home of Rest and Open Air Cottage Hospital, run byFlorence Boothfor theSalvation Army.[22]

In 1897 Oldfield announced the foundation of the Hospital of St Francis in South London, on anti-vivisection principles. It had up to a dozen beds, in a converted town house onNew Kent Road,and gave out-patient care. It closed around 1904, its funding being transferred toBattersea General Hospital.[23][24]Oldfield was senior physician to the Lady Margaret Fruitarian Hospital inBromley,which he founded in 1903.[2][25]

Oldfield also founded the fruitarian Margaret Manor hospital inDoddington, Kent.[25][26]No alcohol, fish or meat was permitted at the Hospital; the food was cooked incoconut oil.[27]

Army surgeon

Oldfield shared thepacifistviews of the Order of the Golden Age.[28]In 1898, he joined theEssex Regiment,1st Volunteer Battalion as an Army Surgeon with rank of Lieutenant, serving to 1901.[5]He later in 1913, with rank of Major, criticised the absence of standard training for Regimental Medical Officers of theTerritorial Army.[29][30]DuringWorld War I,he held a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance Corps, a Territorial in theRoyal Army Medical Corps.His service came to an end in 1918, when he was thrown from a horse. He was awarded theTerritorial Decoration.[2][28][31]

Legal reformer

In 1901, the University of Oxford awarded Oldfield a doctorate in civil law for his thesis oncapital punishment.[2]The Penalty of Death,it combined criminological, legal and sociological arguments to call for abolition of the death penalty.[32]He founded the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment in the same year.[2]He became chairman of the Romilly Society, a pressure group forpenal reformfounded in 1897, in 1910.[33][1]

India

Oldfield subscribed toCatherine Impey's periodicalAnti-Caste.[34]He made an investigative visit to India in 1901.[1]

Later life

Oldfield became a fellow of theRoyal Society of Medicinein 1920.[1]He died in 1953 at the age of 89, inDoddington, Kent.[4]

Oldfield in 1938

Views

In 1891, Oldfield attempted to convert Gandhi toAnglicanism,urging him to read the Bible.[7]By the 20th century he had changed his own views. In 1904, he commented that "as a medical man, seeing much of pain and suffering and dying, my experience does not lead me to think that it is the profession of the Christian creed which is by any means the sole method of securing happiness of soul in this world, or which removes the fear of passing on to the next."[35]

Oldfield concluded that a "wider conception of God" was needed.[35]He is listed inA Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalistsas atheistwith mystic ideas about the soul.[36]He was a proponent of evolution conceived as based on cooperation rather than competition.[14]

Selected publications

  • Tuberculosis: Or Flesh Eating a Cause of Consumption(1897)
  • The Penalty of Death: Or, the Problem of Capital Punishment(1901)
  • Essays of the Golden Age(1902)
  • The Penny Guide to Fruitarian Diet and Cookery(1902)
  • Myrrh and Amaranth(1905)
  • The Value of Fruit as Food(1906)
  • "Vegetarianism".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 27 (11th ed.). 1911.
  • The Raisin Cure(1923)
  • Fasting for Health and Life(1924)
  • The Dry Diet Cure(1925)
  • Get Well and Keep Well(1926)
  • Eat and Get Well(1927)
  • Eat and Keep Young(1928)
  • Eat and Be Happy(1929)
  • Healing and the Conquest of Pain(1944)
  • The Mystery of Birth(1949)
  • My Friend Gandhi(Reminiscences of Gandhiji,1951)
  • The Mystery of Death(1951)
  • A Popular Guide to Fruitarian Diet and Cookery(1952)

Quotes

Flesh is an unnatural food and, therefore, tends to create functional disturbance. As it is taken in modern civilization, it is affected with such terrible diseases (readily communicable to man), as cancer, consumption, fever, intestinal worms etc., to an enormous extent. There is little need to wonder that flesh-eating is one of the most serious causes of the diseases that carry off ninety-nine out of every hundred people that are born.

— Josiah Oldfield in 1902[37]

Family

Oldfield married Gertrude Hick on 29 September 1899 atWakefield Cathedral;she was the daughter of Matthew Bussey Hick ofWakefield,and sister of the doctor Henry Hick. They had twin daughters in 1902; but their marriage was not successful and they separated.[4][38]He had two daughters named Josie: Josie Margaret Oldfield, with Irene Doreen Oldfield one of the twins; and Josie Magdalen Oldfield, born 1906 and identified in the 1911 census.[5]The latter, a cradle fruitarian, was qualified medically from 1933.[39]

References

  1. ^abcdSmith, Virginia. "Oldfield, Josiah (1863–1953)".Oxford Dictionary of National Biography(online ed.). Oxford University Press.doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/40999.(Subscription orUK public library membershiprequired.)
  2. ^abcdefghiJosiah Oldfield, D.C.L., M.R.C.S.”The British Medical Journal,vol. 1, no. 4806, 1953, pp. 407–407.
  3. ^abFoster, Joseph(1888–1892)."Oldfield, Josiah".Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715–1886.Oxford: Parker and Co – viaWikisource.
  4. ^abcdeThe Gissing Journal, Volume XLIII.(January 2007). pp. 29–30
  5. ^abcd"Life story: Josiah Oldfield, Lives of the First World War".livesofthefirstworldwar.iwm.org.uk.
  6. ^Dr. Josiah Oldfield, Founder of 'The Campdonian' Magazine.Chipping Campden School. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  7. ^abWolpert, Stanley. (2001).Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi.Oxford University Press. p. 22.ISBN0-19-513060-X
  8. ^Gandhi, Rajmohan. (2008).Gandhi: The Man, His People, and the Empire.University of California Press. p. 42.ISBN978-0-520-25570-8
  9. ^abWeinbren, Dan (1994). "Against All Cruelty: The Humanitarian League, 1891-1919".History Workshop(38): 86–105.ISSN0309-2984.JSTOR4289320.
  10. ^Bates, A. W. H. (2017).Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History.Palgrave Macmillan. p. 72.ISBN978-1-137-55696-7
  11. ^Oldfield, Josiah. (1895).Is There Nothing Like Leather? Some Experiments with Vegetarian Boots.Vegetarian Review.pp. 401-403.
  12. ^"Vegetarian Federal Union 1889-1911".International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved 20 August 2021.
  13. ^ab"Fruitarian Society Feature".The Order of the Golden Age. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  14. ^abPreece, Rod (25 October 2011).Animal Sensibility and Inclusive Justice in the Age of Bernard Shaw.UBC Press. p. 189.ISBN978-0-7748-2112-4.
  15. ^Chambers's Journal.W. & R. Chambers. 1909. p. 514.
  16. ^De Candia, Cecilia Maria. (1913).The Kitchen Garden and the Cook.London. p. 235
  17. ^Dandelions for Health.The Popular Science Monthly,1920.
  18. ^"Foreign News: Royal Tea".Time.Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  19. ^"A Vegetarian Hospital".Morning Post.20 September 1897. p. 2.
  20. ^Bates, A. W. H. (24 July 2017).Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History.Springer. pp. 73–74.ISBN978-1-137-55697-4.
  21. ^"Reflections from a Board-Room Mirror".The Nursing Record and Hospital World.14:223. 6 April 1895.
  22. ^Burdett, Sir Henry C. (1904).Burdett's Hospitals and Charities: Being the Year Book of Philanthropy.Scientific Press. p. 660.
  23. ^Bates, A. W. H. (24 July 2017).Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History.Springer. pp. 75–80.ISBN978-1-137-55697-4.
  24. ^Kean, Hilda (August 1998).Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain Since 1800.Reaktion Books. p. 248 note 87.ISBN978-1-86189-014-6.
  25. ^ab"Oldfield, Dr Josiah (case 20178) Warden of Oriolet Hospital, Loughton, Essex (vegetarian): document file and key file".The National Archives. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  26. ^"No.13 Lady Margaret Manor".Doddington Historic Buildings. Retrieved 8 January 2020.
  27. ^Guha, Ramachandra. (2013).Gandhi Before India.Penguin India. p. 38
  28. ^abBates, A. W. H. (24 July 2017).Anti-Vivisection and the Profession of Medicine in Britain: A Social History.Springer.ISBN978-1-137-55697-4.
  29. ^Whitehead, Ian R. (14 November 2013).Doctors in the Great War.Pen and Sword. p. 155.ISBN978-1-78346-174-5.
  30. ^Medicine and Modern Warfare.Brill. 29 August 2016. p. 166.ISBN978-90-04-33327-7.
  31. ^Twigg, Julia."The Vegetarian Movement in England 1847-1981".ivu.org.
  32. ^Pittard, Christopher. (2019).Grant Allen's “Jerry Stokes”: Detective Fiction, the Death Penalty, and the Scene of Writing.Victorian Periodicals Review52 (2): 235–254.
  33. ^Garland, David (30 January 2018).Punishment and Welfare: A History of Penal Strategies.Quid Pro Books. p. 149.ISBN978-1-61027-378-7.
  34. ^Bressey, Caroline (October 2012). "Reporting oppression: mapping racial prejudice in Anti-Caste and Fraternity, 1888–1895".Journal of Historical Geography.38(4): 408.doi:10.1016/j.jhg.2012.04.001.
  35. ^abCourtney, William Leonard. (1905).Do We Believe? A Record of a Great Correspondence in "The Daily Telegraph: October, November, December, 1904.London: Hodder and Stoughton.
  36. ^McCabe, Joseph. (1920).A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists.London: Watts & Co. p. 566
  37. ^"The Vegetarian and Our Fellow Creatures".The Vegetarian Magazine.6(8): 181. 1902.
  38. ^Coustillas, Pierre (30 September 2015).The Heroic Life of George Gissing, Part I: 1857–1888.Routledge. p. 17.ISBN978-1-317-30409-8.
  39. ^"n/a".Fife Free Press, & Kirkcaldy Guardian.4 February 1933. p. 12.

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