Wikipedia

Edmund J. Baillie

Edmund John Baillie FRHS FLS (4 May 1851 – 18 October 1897) was a Welsh businessman, horticulturist and vegetarian activist.

Edmund J. Baillie
FRHS FLS
Portrait from Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
Born
Edmund John Baillie

(1851-05-04)4 May 1851
Hawarden, Wales
Died18 October 1897(1897-10-18) (aged 46)
Chester, England
Occupations
AwardsKingsley Memorial Medal
Signature

Biography

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Baillie was born in Hawarden, Wales, on 4 May 1851.[1] As a young man, he worked at the firm F. and A. Dickson and Sons of Eastgate, Chester, where he later became its adviser and partner.[2] After Dickson's two firms were amalgamated, he became deputy chairman of Dicksons, Limited.[3]

Baillie was a friend of John Ruskin and president of the John Ruskin Society in Liverpool.[3][4] He was honorary secretary and treasurer of the Grosvenor Museum at Chester and a member of the Chester Society of Natural Science. He was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society and was later elected a fellow.[3][5] He was elected to the Linnean Society of London on 21 June 1878 and became a fellow in 1883.[3] Baillie specialised in fruit trees.[4] He also corresponded with Walt Whitman.[4][6]

Baillie contributed to Gardener's Magazine, Journal of Botany, Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener and the Proceedings of the Linnean Society.[1] For his services to natural science, he was awarded the Kingsley Memorial Medal.[2] Baillie was a Presbyterian and was church secretary at the English Presbyterian Church of Wales, Chester for many years.[2] He was a spiritualist and a member of the London Spiritualist Alliance.[7]

Baillie died on 18 October 1897 in Chester.[1]

Vegetarianism

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Baillie was a vegetarian. He joined the Vegetarian Society in 1878 and later served as a vice-president.[8] He wrote papers in defence of vegetarianism, including papers read at conferences such as the International Vegetarian Congress.[2][9] In 1885, Baillie wrote in The Dietetic Reformer about vegetarian rennet made from the berries of Withania coagulans.[10] He served on the General Council of the Order of the Golden Age in 1897.[11]

Publications

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 Desmond, Ray (1994). Dictionary of British and Irish Botanists and Horticulturists. Abingdon: Taylor & Francis. p. 34. ISBN 0-85066-843-3.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Death of Mr. E. J. Baillie". The Chester Courant and Advertiser for North Wales. 20 October 1897. p. 5. Retrieved 13 May 2026 – via National Library of Wales.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Edmund John Baillie". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 110: 34. 1898 – via Google Books.
  4. 1 2 3 "Edmund J. Baillie to Walt Whitman, 17 September 1890". The Walt Whitman Archive. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  5. ↑ Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (May 2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era" (PDF). The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF) (PhD thesis). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. p. 7. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  6. ↑ "Edmund J. Baillie to Walt Whitman, 19 January 1891". The Walt Whitman Archive. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  7. ↑ "Decease of Mr. Edmund J. Baillie" (PDF). Light. 17 (876): 517. 1897 – via IAPSOP.
  8. ↑ Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 183.
  9. ↑ "International Congress 1890". International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved 13 May 2026.
  10. ↑ "Vegetable Rennet". The Dietetic Reformer. 164: 250. 1885 – via Google Books.
  11. ↑ "The Order of the Golden Age" (PDF). The Herald of the Golden Age. 2 (9). 1897 – via IAPSOP.

Further reading

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