Cornelius Prout Newcombe (5 September 1825 – 30 July 1913) was an English

vegetarianism Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat (red meat, poultry, seafood, insects, and the flesh of any other animal). It may also include abstaining from eating all by-products of animal slaughter. Vegetarianism may ...

and temperance activist, and schoolmaster. He was also an early proponent of veganism.

Biography

Cornelius Prout Newcombe was born on 5 September 1825, in

St Luke's, London St Luke's is an area in central London in the Borough of Islington. It lies just north of the border with the City of London near the Barbican Estate, and the Clerkenwell and Shoreditch areas. The area takes its name from the now redundant ...

. He was the second son of Frederick Newcombe, a butcher, and Hannah Prout. Newcombe was the nephew of the painter

Samuel Prout Samuel Prout painted by John Jackson in 1831 Market Day by Samuel Prout A View in Nuremberg by Samuel Prout Utrecht Town Hall by Samuel Prout in 1841 Samuel Prout (; 17 September 1783 – 10 February 1852) was a British watercolourist, and ...

, cousin of the musical theorist Ebenzer Prout, and uncle of the artist and suffrage activist

Bertha Newcombe Bertha Newcombe (17 February 1857 – 11 June 1947) was an English artist and suffrage activist. The fourth of seven children of an entrepreneurial father with an interest in education and art, she grew up mainly in Surrey. Aged 19, she entere ...

. Newcombe married Caroline Tunnicliff in 1848, in Coventry; they had four children. In the early 1850s, he formed a business partnership, Griffiths, Newcombe, & Co.; a company of insurance brokers and ship builders. The company collapsed in 1854 and Newcombe became a schoolmaster. In 1858, after his first wife's death, Newcombe married Mary Kirk. In 1868, he founded the Alexandra Park College, in Hornsey. Later in his teaching career, Newcombe moved to New Zealand, where he worked as the head of various schools. Around 1895, he returned to England, where he continued to work as a head teacher. In 1905, at the age of 80, Newcombe organised and presided over a meeting of fellow vegetarian ocotgenarians in London. Newcombe asserted that humans were naturally vegetarian, and that cancer could be cured by following a strict vegetarian diet; in 1906, he sought funding for the creation of a "Fruitarian Cancer Hospital". In 1911, Newcombe published ''The Manifesto of Vegetarianism'', which was dedicated to

John E. B. Mayor John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor (28 January 1825 – 1 December 1910) was an English classical scholar, writer and vegetarianism activist. Life Mayor was born at Baddegama, British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) the son of Rev. John Major and Charlotte ...

, Joseph Wallace and

Albert Broadbent Albert Henry Broadbent (20 August 1934 – 23 October 2006) was an English footballer who played on the left wing. He scored 99 goals from 485 appearances in the Football League. Career Born in Dudley, Worcestershire, Broadbent commenced ...

. Newcombe was the editor of ''The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review'', the Vegetarian Society's journal. In 1912, Newcombe wrote in the journal about a division he perceived between vegetarians, those who consumed animal products, and those who did not; he opened up the discussion to letters arguing for each side, receiving 24 responses. Newcombe was critical of the defences presented for consuming eggs and milk, arguing that "The only true way is to live on cereals, pulse, fruit, nuts and vegetables". Newcombe created and edited a publication on temperance, ''The Temperance Gazette'', published by William Horsell; he was also a member of the National Temperance Association. Newcombe died on 30 July 1913, at the age of 87, in Rusthall, Kent; he was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium. After Newcombe's death, a memorial prize essay competition was created in his honour by the Vegetarian Society.

Publications

* " On Fish Eating", ''The Vegetarian'', Vol. 4, 15 April 1899, pp. 145–150 *''The Diet Cure of Cancer'' *''The Manifesto of Vegetarianism'' (London: Vegetarian Society, 1911)

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Newcombe, Cornelius Prout 1825 births 1913 deaths 19th-century English businesspeople 19th-century English educators 19th-century English male writers 19th-century English non-fiction writers 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English non-fiction writers Alternative cancer treatment advocates British magazine founders British veganism activists British vegetarianism activists English company founders English emigrants to New Zealand English magazine editors English temperance activists Heads of schools in London Heads of schools in New Zealand People associated with the Vegetarian Society People from Islington (district) School founders