Josiah Oldfield (23 February 1863 – 2 February 1953) was an English

lawyer A lawyer is a person who practices law. The role of a lawyer varies greatly across different legal jurisdictions. A lawyer can be classified as an advocate, attorney, barrister, canon lawyer, civil law notary, counsel, counselor, solic ...

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and promoter of his own variant of

fruitarianism Fruitarianism () is a Diet (nutrition), diet related to veganism that consists primarily of consuming fruits and possibly nut (fruit), nuts and seeds, but without any animal products. Fruitarian diets are subject to criticism and health concerns. ...

which was virtually indistinguishable from

lacto-ovo vegetarianism Lacto-ovo vegetarianism or ovo-lacto vegetarianism is a type of vegetarianism which forbids animal flesh but allows the consumption of animal products such as dairy and eggs. Unlike pescetarianism, it does not include fish or other seafood. A ty ...

. He became a versatile author, a prolific writer of popular books on dietary and health topics.

Early life

The son of David Oldfield of

Ryton, Shropshire Ryton is a village and civil parish in Shropshire, England, in the district of Bridgnorth. It lies about one mile north north west of Beckbury. The civil parish originates during Norman times, and appears as "Ruitone" in the Domesday book of 108 ...

, a provision dealer, and his wife Margaret Bates, he was born on 28 February 1863 in

Shrewsbury Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...

.Josiah Oldfield, D.C.L., M.R.C.S.” ''The British Medical Journal'', vol. 1, no. 4806, 1953, pp. 407–407. His father, who died in 1903, was a church organist in nearby

Condover Condover is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Shropshire, England. It is about south of the county town of Shrewsbury, and just east of the A49 road, A49. The Cound Brook flows through the village on its way from the Stret ...

from around the time of Josiah's birth. Oldfield was educated at Newport Grammar School.''The Gissing Journal, Volume XLIII''
(January 2007). pp. 29–30 He then taught as an assistant master at

Chipping Campden School Chipping Campden School is a non-selective secondary school and sixth form with academy status located in Chipping Campden, in the English county of Gloucestershire. Founded in c.1440 the school celebrated its 575th birthday in 2015. The sch ...

. Matriculating in 1882 at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

as a non-collegiate student, Oldfield graduated B.A. in 1885, with second-class honours in civil law and theology. While there, he became a vegetarian and concluded meat-eating was unnecessary. He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

, and practised as a barrister on the Oxford court circuit. He then studied medicine at St. Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and qualified in 1897.

Oldfield and vegetarianism

Oldfield was President of the West London Food Reform Society, a vegetarian group based in

Bayswater Bayswater is an area within the City of Westminster in West London. It is a built-up district with a population density of 17,500 per square kilometre, and is located between Kensington Gardens to the south, Paddington to the north-east, and ...

, founded in 1891.Wolpert, Stanley. (2001). ''Gandhi's Passion: The Life and Legacy of Mahatma Gandhi''. Oxford University Press. p. 22.

Edwin Arnold Sir Edwin Arnold KCIE CSI (10 June 183224 March 1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is most known for his work ''The Light of Asia''.Mohandas Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

was Secretary. Oldfield met Gandhi through

Pranjivan Mehta Pranjivandas Jagjivandas Mehta (1864 – 3 August 1932) was a Mumbai-born physician, lawyer and jeweller who settled in Burma. He was a close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, helping Gandhi in England, helping him return from South Africa to India and ...

, in 1890, and the two became friends, sharing rooms in Bayswater for some months in 1891. Further, Oldfield was associated with the

London Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is a British registered charity which was established on 30 September 1847 to promote vegetarianism. History In the 19th century a number of groups in Britain actively promoted and followed mea ...

(LVS) and editor for their publication, ''The Vegetarian''. He was also the secretary of the

Vegetarian Federal Union The Vegetarian Federal Union (VFU) was a British vegetarianism organisation founded in 1889, which operated until 1911. History In July 1889, a group of individuals from the London Vegetarian Society met and drew up plans to form what would bec ...

. He was a member of the

Order of the Golden Age The Order of the Golden Age (OGA) was an international animal rights society with a Christian, theosophical and vegetarian emphasis, which existed between 1895 and 1959. History The Order of the Golden Age (OGA) was founded by Rev. Henry Joh ...

and the

Humanitarian League The Humanitarian League was a British radical advocacy group formed by Henry S. Salt and others to promote the principle that it is wrong to inflict avoidable suffering on any sentient being. It was based in London and operated between 189 ...

. In 1895, Oldfield searched for alternatives to

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...

for boots, experimenting with boots made from

India rubber Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...

, gutta-percha, and

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

. He found faults with all of those substances, but expressed optimism about a "vegetarian" boot. That year he submitted a paper on vegetarian boots to the autumn congress of the Vegetarian Federal Union held in Birmingham. The entry "Vegetarianism" in the ''

Encyclopædia Britannica The (Latin for "British Encyclopædia") is a general knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It is published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.; the company has existed since the 18th century, although it has changed ownership various time ...

'' (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.""Fruitarian Society Feature"
The Order of the Golden Age. Retrieved 8 January 2020.

Fruitarianism

Oldfield advocated for

, putting him at odds with the

Vegetarian Society The Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom is a British registered charity which was established on 30 September 1847 to promote vegetarianism. History In the 19th century a number of groups in Britain actively promoted and followed meat ...

. 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". His own "fruitarianism" was close to

ovo-lacto vegetarianism Lacto-ovo vegetarianism or ovo-lacto vegetarianism is a type of vegetarianism which forbids animal flesh but allows the consumption of animal products such as dairy and eggs. Unlike pescetarianism, it does not include fish or other seafood. A ty ...

. He was not a

vegan Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal product—particularly in diet—and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. An individual who follows the diet or philosophy is known as a vegan. Di ...

: he recommended a daily diet of dandelion leaves, eggs, grapes, honey, lettuce, milk, salad, and watercress. He opposed

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

s and

vivisection Vivisection () is surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure. The word is, more broadly, used as a pejorative catch-all term for experiment ...

. 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." A recipe of his "Margaret Plum Pudding" was included in

Cecilia Maria de Candia Cecilia Maria de Candia (24 December 1853, Brighton, England – 26 May 1926, Bordighera, Italy), later Mrs Godfrey Pearse, was a British-Italian writer, amateur singer and society hostess. She was the daughter of two famous opera singers, Giulia G ...

's cookbook, ''The Kitchen Garden and the Cook'' (1913). In 1931, Oldfield 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."

Hospital founder

While he was a medical student, Oldfield was involved with the Oriolet Hospital, founded in 1895 in

Loughton Loughton () is a town and civil parish in the Epping Forest District of Essex. Part of the metropolitan and urban area of London, the town borders Chingford, Waltham Abbey, Theydon Bois, Chigwell and Buckhurst Hill, and is northeast of Chari ...

, Essex. It required vegetarianism of its patients. The hospital was endorsed by the Order of the Golden Age, and partly funded by

Arnold Hills Arnold Frank Hills (12 March 1857 – 7 March 1927) was an English businessman, sportsman, philanthropist, and promoter of vegetarianism. Biography Hills was born in Denmark Hill, Surrey, son of a manufacturing chemist. Arnold Hills was also ...

. Oldfield admitted patients there, initially employed with title Warden, supported by a medical officer. Gertrude Hick, the nurse whom Oldfied later married, was trained in London and appointed sister in charge at the hospital in early 1895. By 1904 it had become the Oriolet Hygienic Home of Rest and Open Air Cottage Hospital, run by Florence Booth for the

Salvation Army Salvation (from Latin: ''salvatio'', from ''salva'', 'safe, saved') is the state of being saved or protected from harm or a dire situation. In religion and theology, ''salvation'' generally refers to the deliverance of the soul from sin and its c ...

. 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 on

New Kent Road New Kent Road is a road in the London Borough of Southwark. The road was created in 1751 when the Turnpike Trust upgraded a local footpath. This was done as part of the general road improvements associated with the creation of Westminster Br ...

, and gave out-patient care. It closed around 1904, its funding being transferred to Battersea General Hospital. Oldfield was senior physician to the Lady Margaret Fruitarian Hospital in

Bromley Bromley is a large town in Greater London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, and had an estimated population of 87,889 as of 2011. Originally part of Kent, Bromley became a market town, char ...

, which he founded in 1903."Oldfield, Dr Josiah (case 20178) Warden of Oriolet Hospital, Loughton, Essex (vegetarian): document file and key file"
The National Archives. Retrieved 8 January 2020. Oldfield also founded the fruitarian Margaret Manor hospital in

Doddington, Kent Doddington is a village and civil parish in the district of Swale in Kent, England. The Syndale Valley shelters the central part in the Kent Downs Area of outstanding natural beauty. Today the village is notable for Doddington Place Gardens, fo ...

. No alcohol, fish or meat was permitted at the Hospital; the food was cooked in

coconut oil frameless , right , alt = A cracked coconut and a bottle of coconut oil Coconut oil (or coconut butter) is an edible oil derived from the wick, meat, and milk of the coconut palm fruit. Coconut oil is a white solid fat; in warmer climates duri ...

Army surgeon

Oldfield shared the

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition or resistance to war, militarism (including conscription and mandatory military service) or violence. Pacifists generally reject theories of Just War. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaign ...

views of the Order of the Golden Age. In 1898, he joined the

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

, 1st Volunteer Battalion as an Army Surgeon with rank of Lieutenant, serving to 1901. He later in 1913, with rank of Major, criticised the absence of standard training for Regimental Medical Officers of the Territorial Army. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he held a commission as Lieutenant-Colonel of the 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance Corps, a Territorial in the

Royal Army Medical Corps The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all Army personnel and their families, in war and in peace. The RAMC, the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, the Royal Army Dental Corps a ...

. His service came to an end in 1918, when he was thrown from a horse. He was awarded the

Territorial Decoration __NOTOC__ The Territorial Decoration (TD) was a military medal of the United Kingdom awarded for long service in the Territorial Force and its successor, the Territorial Army. This award superseded the Volunteer Officer's Decoration when the Te ...

Legal reformer

In 1901, the University of Oxford awarded Oldfield a doctorate in civil law for his thesis on

capital punishment Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. ''The Penalty of Death'', it combined criminological, legal and sociological arguments to call for abolition of the death penalty. He founded the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment in the same year. He became chairman of the Romilly Society, a pressure group for

penal reform Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are impacted by crimes. ...

founded in 1897, in 1910.

India

Oldfield subscribed to

Catherine Impey Catherine Impey (1847 – 14 December 1923) was a British Quaker activist against racial discrimination. She founded Britain's first anti-racist journal, ''Anti-Caste'', in March 1888 and edited it until its last edition in 1895. The journa ...

's periodical ''Anti-Caste''. He made an investigative visit to India in 1901. His personal connections to India included contacts in

Kathiawar Kathiawar () is a peninsula, near the far north of India's west coast, of about bordering the Arabian Sea. It is bounded by the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest and by the Gulf of Khambhat (Gulf of Cambay) in the east. In the northeast, it is ...

. This was the home area of his friend Gandhi, born at

Porbandar Porbandar is a city in the States and territories of India, Indian state of Gujarat, perhaps best known for being the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi and Sudama. It is the administrative center of the Porbandar District and it was the former capi ...

; and best man at his wedding in 1899 was Trimbakrai Jadavrai Desai, then a law student at

Gray's Inn The Honourable Society of Gray's Inn, commonly known as Gray's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister in England and Wale ...

in London, from

Limbdi State Limbdi State was a princely state and was entitled to a 9-gun salute during the British Raj. It was ruled at that time by members of the Jhala dynasty. It belonged to Kathiawar Agency. After India's independence The Indian independence m ...

of the

Kathiawar Agency The Kathiawar Agency, on the Kathiawar peninsula in the western part of the Indian subcontinent, was a political unit of some 200 small princely states under the suzerainty of the Bombay Presidency of British India. The agency's headquarters wer ...

. His experiences formed the material of a series of articles in ''

The Leisure Hour ''The Leisure Hour'' was a British general-interest periodical of the Victorian era which ran weekly from 1852 to 1905. It was the most successful of several popular magazines published by the Religious Tract Society, which produced Christian lite ...

''. One of them related to

Bhavnagar State Bhavnagar State was a princely state with 13 Gun Salutes during the British Raj. It was part of Kathiawar Agency in Saurashtra. The State of Bhavnagar covered an area of 2,961 sq. miles and had a population of 618,429 in 1941. Its ruler ...

in eastern Kathiawar, and a visit where he was accompanied by Prabhashankar Pattani. In April 1903 Oldfield published in the ''

Hibbert Journal ''The Hibbert Journal'' was a large, quarterly magazine in softback book format, issued since 1902 by the Hibbert Trust, best described by its subtitle: ''A Quarterly Review of Religion, Theology and Philosophy''. In the early years it was publish ...

'' an article "The Failure of Christian Missions in India".

Later life

Oldfield became a fellow of the

Royal Society of Medicine The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London. History The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chambers ...

in 1920. He died in 1953 at the age of 89, in

Views

In 1891, Oldfield attempted to convert Gandhi to

Anglicanism Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

, urging him to read the Bible. 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."Courtney, William Leonard. (1905)
''Do We Believe? A Record of a Great Correspondence in "The Daily Telegraph: October, November, December, 1904''
London: Hodder and Stoughton. Oldfield concluded that a "wider conception of God" was needed. He is listed in '' A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists'' as a

theist Theism is broadly defined as the belief in the existence of a supreme being or deities. In common parlance, or when contrasted with ''deism'', the term often describes the classical conception of God that is found in monotheism (also referred to ...

with mystic ideas about the soul. He was a proponent of evolution conceived as based on cooperation rather than competition.

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) * *''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

Family

Oldfield married Gertrude Hick on 29 September 1899 at

Wakefield Cathedral Wakefield Cathedral, or the Cathedral Church of All Saints in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, is a co-equal Anglican cathedral with Bradford and Ripon Cathedrals, in the Diocese of Leeds and a seat of the Bishop of Leeds. Originally the pa ...

; she was the daughter of Matthew Bussey Hick of

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, and sister of the doctor Henry Hick. They had twin daughters in 1902; but their marriage was not successful and they separated. 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. The latter, a cradle fruitarian, was qualified medically from 1933. Dr. Josie M. Oldfield survived him.

References

External links

Dr. Josiah Oldfield
(The Order of the Golden Age)

(Lost Hospitals of London)
Josiah Oldfield
at the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oldfield, Josiah 1863 births 1953 deaths 19th-century English lawyers 19th-century English medical doctors 20th-century English lawyers 20th-century English medical doctors Alumni of the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital Alumni of the University of Oxford Anti-vivisectionists British anti–death penalty activists British vegetarianism activists English animal rights scholars English food writers Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Royal College of Surgeons Members of Lincoln's Inn People associated with the Order of the Golden Age People associated with the Vegetarian Society People educated at Newport Free Grammar School People from Doddington, Kent Writers from Shrewsbury Royal Army Medical Corps officers Vegetarian cookbook writers Medical doctors from Shrewsbury