Frances L. Boult

Frances L. Boult
Boult in Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
Born
Frances Sarah Louisa Morton

(1856-04-28)28 April 1856
The Wirral, England
Died29 April 1905(1905-04-29) (aged 49)
Malvern, England
Occupations
  • Social reformer
  • magazine editor
  • cookery instructor
Spouse
Alfred Julius Boult
​
(m. 1880)​
Children3

Frances Sarah Louisa Boult (née Morton; 28 April 1856 – 29 April 1905) was an English social reformer, magazine editor, and cookery instructor. She was active in the temperance and vegetarian movements, founded the Ivy Leaf Society and edited its magazine The Children's Garden. She also founded and was vice-president of the Northern Heights Vegetarian Society.

Biography

Career

Boult was born Frances Sarah Louisa Morton in The Wirral on 28 April 1856.[1][2] As a young woman, she was involved in the women's temperance movement. According to James Gregory, she became a vegetarian to treat paralysis before adopting vegetarianism on ethical grounds.[3]

Ivy Leaf Society

Camden Town branch of the Ivy Leaf Society, 1899

Boult founded the Ivy Leaf Society, a vegetarian organisation for young people under the age of 17. She was its honorary secretary and later its president.[4][5][6] Its motto was: "I will not kill nor hurt any living creature needlessly, nor destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to comfort and protect all gentle life upon the earth".[5] Children from the Society met at Boult's house at Hilldrop Crescent, Camden Road, where they delivered songs and played games.[5]

The Society lectured at schools and offered prizes to children for vegetarian essays.[7] Boult spoke at the Vegetarian Federal Union's 4th International Congress in 1897.[6] She was also active in the London Vegetarian Society, which cooperated with the Ivy Leaf Society. In 1900, the Ivy Leaf Society began publishing The Children's Garden, a magazine edited by Boult.[5] After its first year, 32,000 copies had circulated. It appeared monthly until December 1905 and printed fiction, poetry, and non-fiction articles on moral instruction and vegetarianism.[5]

Northern Heights Vegetarian Society

Boult founded the Northern Heights Vegetarian Society and was one of its vice-presidents.[8]: 165 [9][10] In 1904, she lectured on "Substitutes: How the vegetable kingdom replaces the animal" and demonstrated alternatives to animal products. These included nut fats as substitutes for lard and suet, vegetable substitutes for candles and soaps, boots made without leather, and imitation furs.[11]

Other work

Boult founded the children's section of the Vegetarian Society[12] and was on the General Council of the Order of the Golden Age.[13] She also published the children's magazine Rainbow.[8]: 149  She also contributed vegetarian cookery material, including a plum pudding recipe.[14]

Personal life and death

Boult married Alfred Julius Boult on 24 August 1880.[15] He was the founder of Boult Wade Tennant. They had two sons and one daughter. Their daughter Winifred worked on The Children's Garden in 1900.[3]

Boult died of meningitis at Swinmore House, Malvern, on 29 April 1905. A memorial service was held at the Rosslyn Hill Unitarian Chapel on 3 May.[2] Sidney H. Beard wrote that humanity had lost "one of its bravest and most devoted apostles".[5]

Legacy

After Boult's death, the Ivy Leaf Society and The Children's Garden ended in December 1905. The Vegetarian Federal Union published a new magazine, The Children's Realm, from January 1906 as a continuation of Boult's work.[5] The magazine was managed by Arnold Hills.[5]

Publications

  • "A Mother's Appeal for Women" (PDF). Herald of the Golden Age. 5 (12): 146–147. 15 December 1900.
  • "Christmas, the Festival of Slaughter". Herald of the Golden Age. December 1898. (also published as a pamphlet)

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Births Jun 1856: Morton, Frances Sarah Louisa". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
  2. 1 2 Aoyagi, Akiko; Shurtleff, William (26 March 2022). "Death of Mrs. Frances L. Boult" (PDF). History of Vegetarianism and Veganism Worldwide (1430 BCE to 1969): Extensively Annotated Bibliography and Sourcebook (PDF). Soyinfo Center. p. 690. ISBN 978-1-948436-73-1.
  3. 1 2 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. 17. Retrieved 30 May 2026.
  4. ↑ "Mrs Frances L. Boult". The Daily Telegraph. 5 January 1905. p. 7 – via Findmypast.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Kubisz, Marzena (2024). "Vegetarian Children's Press in the Early Twentieth Century: The Children's Garden and The Children's Realm". Children's Vegetarian Culture in the Victorian Era: The Juvenile Food Reformers Press and Literary Change. Taylor & Francis. doi:10.4324/9781003400042. ISBN 978-1-04-016003-9.
  6. 1 2 "4th International Congress 1897". International Vegetarian Union.
  7. ↑ "They Don't Eat Meat". The Morning Leader. 5 November 1897. p. 5 – via Findmypast.
  8. 1 2 Gregory, James (2007). Of Victorians and Vegetarians: The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-century Britain. Tauris Academic Studies. ISBN 978-1-4356-1584-7.
  9. ↑ Morris, Emily; Scholl, Lesa (2022). The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Victorian Women's Writing. Springer. p. 57. ISBN 978-3-03-078318-1.
  10. ↑ "Vegetarian Federal Union 1889-1911". International Vegetarian Union. 2024.
  11. ↑ "Vegetarian Society". Norwood News & Penge and Anerley Chronicle. 22 October 1904. p. 7 – via Findmypast.
  12. ↑ Calvert, Samantha Jane (June 2012). Eden's Diet: Christianity and Vegetarianism 1809–2009 (PDF) (PhD thesis). University of Birmingham. p. 97. Retrieved 20 January 2025.
  13. ↑ "The Order of the Golden Age" (PDF). The Herald of the Golden Age. 6 (3). 1901 – via IAPSOP.com.
  14. ↑ Hawksley, Lucinda Dickens (2024). "Vegetarian Plum Pudding". Victorian Christmas: Traditional Recipes, Decorations, Activities, and Carols. Countryman Press. ISBN 978-1682688649.
  15. ↑ Swanwick, Sarah Lupton; Jones, James Edmund, eds. (1899). The descendants of Rev. Philip Henry incumbent of Worthenbury, in the County of Flint, who was ejected therefrom by the Act of Uniformity in 1662 : the Swanwick branch to 1899. Toronto: Brown-Searle Printing Co. p. 47 – via The Internet Archive.
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