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Florence Isabel Field (née Nicholson; 1866 – 13 January 1931) was an English vegetarianism activist. She worked in London vegetarian organisations in the 1890s and later served as secretary of the Vegetarian Federal Union. She published The Jubilee Cookery Book (1897) and was the first editor of The Children’s Realm, a vegetarian children’s magazine.

Biography

Early life

Nicholson was born in 1866 at Barleythorpe, Rutland, to Thomas Nicholson and Isabella Nicholson.[1][2]

Vegetarian activism

Delegates at the Vegetarian Congress at Brighton in 1894; Nicholson is seated in the front row, second from right

Nicholson originally intended to pursue a literary career, but became a vegetarian after she was appointed assistant secretary of the London Vegetarian Society.[3]

In the 1890s, Nicholson worked in the office of the London Vegetarian Association. According to Charles W. Forward‘s Fifty Years of Food Reform, May Yates suggested that Nicholson should be appointed to assist her after the association’s work increased. Forward stated that Nicholson had previously worked with Yates on an exhibition and that, although she was not then a vegetarian, she was appointed. After Yates resigned, Nicholson became secretary of the association.[4]

Hilda Kean writes that Nicholson established a children’s dinner fund for underfed children, distributing cheap meals of vegetable soup, wholemeal bread and wholemeal currant bread.[5]

By 1907, Nicholson was secretary of the Vegetarian Federal Union. In October that year, Good Health named her, with C. Herman Senn and the magazine’s editor, as a judge for a Christmas cookery competition.[6]

Writing and editing

Title page of The Jubilee Cookery Book (1897)

In 1897, Nicholson published The Jubilee Cookery Book: Vegetarian Recipes, with a preface by Arnold Hills. The book gave weekly menus and recipes for vegetarian meals, including soups, savouries, puddings and pies.[7]

In 1898, Nicholson published early recipes for vegetarian sausages and a vegetarian shepherd’s pie in The Vegetarian.[8][9]

Nicholson was the first editor of The Children’s Realm, a monthly vegetarian magazine for children founded in 1906 and published by the Vegetarian Federal Union. She was later succeeded by A. M. Cole.[10]

Personal life and death

Nicholson married Arthur C. Field at Godstone, Surrey, in 1919.[11][12] He was a vegetarianism activist and a member of the council of the London Vegetarian Society.[13]

Nicholson died on 13 January 1931 in Godstone, aged 64.[14][15]

Publications

See also

References

  1. ^ “Births Sep 1866: Nicholson, Florence I.” FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  2. ^ United Kingdom census (1871). “Florence I Nicholson”. FamilySearch. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  3. ^ 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. 86. Retrieved 25 January 2026.
  4. ^ Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 125.
  5. ^ Kean, Hilda (1998). Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain Since 1800. Reaktion Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-86189-014-6.
  6. ^ “Prize competition” (PDF). Good Health. Vol. 5, no. 17. 1 October 1907. p. 544 – via Adventist Archives.
  7. ^ Nicholson, Florence I. (1897). The Jubilee Cookery Book: Vegetarian Recipes. London: The West End Press – via Internet Archive.
  8. ^ Nicholson, Florence (1898). “Simple Cookery”. Co-operative News and Journal of Associated Industry. Vol. 29. Co-operative Press Limited. p. 328 – via Google Books.
  9. ^ Nicholson, Florence (1898). “Simple Cookery Recipes”. Co-operative News and Journal of Associated Industry. Vol. 29. Co-operative Press Limited. p. 133 – via Google Books.
  10. ^ Kubisz, Marzena (14 August 2024). Children’s Vegetarian Culture in the Victorian Era: The Juvenile Food Reformers Press and Literary Change. London: Routledge. pp. 64, 74, 139–140. doi:10.4324/9781003400042. ISBN 978-1-003-40004-2.
  11. ^ “Marriages Dec 1919: Nicholson, Florence I.” FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  12. ^ “Marriages Dec 1919: Field, Arthur C.” FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 April 2026.
  13. ^ The Mill Hill Magazine. Vol. 19. 1891. pp. 176–177 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ “Florence Isabel Field Deceased”. Surrey Mirror and County Post. 27 February 1931. p. 2. Retrieved 26 April 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ^ “Deaths Mar 1931: Field, Florence I.” FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 26 April 2026.