Today, with the help of items in our Ernest Bell Library & items in the collection of the Vegan Society UK, we will further introduce Fay Keeling Henderson & G. Allan Henderson, to anyone who is interested enough to read through this blog post.
Fay & Allan were also both very active in managing and in growing the young Vegan Society UK, right from its founding in November 1944.
Fay was in London for the inaugural meeting of the Vegan Society.
The six members of the new Vegan Society held their first meeting in early November at the Attic Club, 144 High Holborn, London. Wiki
London?s Attic Club, the Vegan Society started here in 1944 ? source
According to fellow attendee Sally Shrigley, the day of the founding meeting was ???a Sunday, with sunshine and a blue sky ? an auspicious day for the birth of an idealistic movement?.
The Attic Club opened specially to host the meeting.
Was it Sunday November 5 or Sunday November 12?
London weather records for November 1944 ? ~ ??the first week was mild and on the 5th the temperature rose above 14°C. ~ ? source.
Sunday November 12, 1944 was very cold, so we are very confident about the date of the founding of the Vegan Society being Sunday November 5, 1944.
See the 22 July 2016 update ? posted below
Remember that this was during WW2. 8 May 1945, V-E Day, which marked the end of World War II in Europe, was still 6 months away.
??but animal-free published recipes were very hard to find in 1946!
??
Vegan Recipes by Fay K. Henderson
By 1945 Fay and Allan were thinking that it was high-time for a vegan recipe book, to make it easier for folk to live & eat as vegans. So, Fay started work on testing recipes and on writing. We imagine that Allan also contributed a great deal to the project.
This is an item which we are extremely happy to have in our Ernest Bell Library collection.
Vegan Recipes
Fay Keeling Henderson
London : H. H. Greaves 1946
68 p. ; 8º.
19 cm
With a foreword by Oliver Warnock-Fielden
Note ?
Oliver Warnock-Fielden was a naturopath from Hendon, UK.
Oliver included urine-therapy in his portfolio of treatments.
Think Morarji Desai & his 1978 slot on ?60 Minutes? with Dan Rather!
A previous owner has pasted favorite wartime recipes, and notes on foraging & living with rationing, over the Ad pages in the front & back of the book. The inscribed name is now illegible.
However, in the Vegan News, February 1945 edition, Donald Watson says that two of the Vegan Society?s original members (founding members), Fay Keeling Henderson and G. Allan Henderson, were the source of the idea for the word Vegan.
~ Before the appearance of the first issue, Mr and Mrs G. A. Henderson suggested the name Allvega, with Allvegan as the magazine title. It was from this that the word Vegan was taken,?? ~ ? more
??
Fay Reflecting in 1947
From an article ? VEGAN VALUES by Fay K. Henderson, Vegan Society Secretary ? in The Vegetarian, issue 4, Winter 1947:
?There has been much conjecture as to the origin of the word VEGAN and its meaning. . . in the first instance it was an attempt to get beyond the rather negative phrase ?non-dairy vegetarian? . . . being both the beginning and the end yet implying hopefully that what starts as vegetarian may finish as vegan.?
[Ms. Henderson then explained how the group originally wanted to remain within the Vegetarian Society, as a non-dairy section, but this was not agreed so a separate society was reluctantly formed.]
?. . . The Society has grown steadily in three years to a membership of about five hundred individuals . . . and has recently joined the International Vegetarian Union.?
?. . . It is a matter of some concern and regret that the modern tendency among reform groups is to break away from main societies and work independently for some slightly varying ideal. . . . This condition must be remedied if Vegetarianism is to develop the full force of its revolutionary powers. The closest co-operation and unity is therefore essential.?
The Vegan Society originally published Vegan Recipes ? but they do not have a copy now.
A note from a vegan historian ?
The original print run of Vegan Recipes must have been miniscule. We have read above of the challenges of even obtaining paper just after the end of World War 2.
We are currently aware of just 3 copies of the 1st printing ? one is in our Ernest Bell Library ? one is in The British Library in London, UK ? one is in the New York Public Libraries Collection.
In early 1948 there was news of a ?Revised Edition?.
