• Source: Frances L. Boult

      • Frances L. Boult (1856 – April 29, 1905) was an English vegetarianism activist and cookery instructor. She was the founder of the Ivy Leaf Society and was the editor of its magazine The Children's Garden.


      Career


      Boult was born in 1857 and as a young women was involved with the women's temperance movement. She became a vegetarian to treat paralysis but converted to its ethics. She was the founder and honorary secretary of the Ivy Leaf Society. The Ivy Leaf Society was a vegetarian organization that encouraged humanitarian principles to young people under the age of 17. The Society advocated compassion to both human and non-human animals with a motto "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". Children from the Society went to Boult's house for meetings at Hilldrop Crescent, Camden Road where they delivered songs and played games.
      The Society lectured at schools and offered prizes to children for vegetarian essays. Boult was a speaker at the Vegetarian Federal Union's 4th International Congress in 1897. She was active in the London Vegetarian Society (LVS) which cooperated with the Ivy Leaf Society. In 1900, the Ivy Leaf Society published The Children’s Garden magazine which was edited by Boult. After its first year, 32,000 copies of the magazine had circulated. It was published monthly until December 1905. The magazine featured fictional stories, poetry as well as non-fiction articles on moral guidance and vegetarianism.
      Boult was the founder and a vice-president of the Northern Heights Vegetarian Society. In 1904, she lectured on "Substitutes: How the vegetable kingdom replaces the animal" and demonstrated the substitutes to her audience. Fats from nuts were used to replace lard and suet, there were vegetable substitutes for candles and soaps, boots without leather and imitation furs. She created a vegetarian plum pudding recipe.
      Boult served on the General Council of the Order of the Golden Age.
      She died at Malvern in 1905. Sidney H. Beard commented that humanity had lost "one of its bravest and most devoted apostles".


      Family


      Boult was married to Alfred Julius Boult, the founder of Boult Wade Tennant. Their daughter Winifred Louisa Boult worked on her magazine The Children's Garden in 1900.


      Legacy


      After Boult's death, the Ivy Leaf Society and its magazine disbanded in December 1905. The Vegetarian Federal Union published a new magazine that debuted in January 1906 under the title Children's Realm in honour of Boult. The magazine was managed by Arnold Hills who promised to continue Boult's work.


      Selected publications


      Christmas, the Festival of Slaughter (Order of the Golden Age, 1901)


      References

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