91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Person    | Male  Born 28/2/1863  Died 2/2/1953

Dr Josiah Oldfield

Dr Josiah Oldfield

Lawyer, physician, and writer on health. And creator of hospitals - read on.

Born Shrewsbury. At Oxford University he became a vegetarian and a friend of Gandhi. First qualified as a barrister and then in 1897 as a doctor of medicine. Member of the Fruitarian Society. Director of Oriolet Fruitarian Hospital 1895 - c.1898. In 1898 he moved to London to found his own hospital - the anti-vivisection , at 145 New Kent Road (closed 1902). 1903 founded the which had a chapel where Oldfield held services himself.  President of the West London Food Reform Society, a vegetarian group based in Bayswater, founded in 1891. Founded the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment in 1901.

1903 he opened a hospital in Darenth House, 34 Camberwell Green - to be called the South London Hospital. It closed in 1904 and in 1906 was absorbed by the Battersea Hospital, the Anti-Vivisection Hospital. 1908 he founded the ' Fruitarian Village', the Margaret Manor hospital in Doddington, Kent. In 1921 the Bromley hospital relocated to the site at Lady Margaret Manor.

In WW1 served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. shows a lovely menu cover (in which fruit features prominently) for the Officers’ Mess of the 3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance, whose Commanding Officer was Lt. Col. Josiah Oldfield. Spradbery, the designer of the cover, wrote: "The Colonel established a vegetarian mess and officers’ quarters … the place was popularly known as the Cabbage Patch."

Died Kent. His fruitarianism seems to have been vegetarianism in all but name. He is quoted: "I object absolutely to vegetarianism, because the word smacks of onions and cabbage."

Sources: , where this 1938 image shows Oldfield full length in a voluminous gown, and .

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Dr Josiah Oldfield

Commemorated ati

Oriolet Hospital and Dr Oldfield

The site of the Oriolet Fruitarian Hospital (1895 - 1903) and its director Dr...

91³Ô¹ÏÍø

Other Subjects

Thomas Linacre

Thomas Linacre

Born Canterbury. Studied at Oxford, Rome and Vicenza. Physician to Henry VIII. After 11 years as a doctor he became a priest, giving away his wealth to promote the study of medicine and establis...

Person, Medicine

2 memorials
Lewisham Hospital

Lewisham Hospital

The origins of this hospital go back to a workhouse established in 1612. During WW1 it became the Lewisham Military Hospital, and after further extensions it became the University Hospital Lewisham...

Building, Medicine

2 memorials
Sir George Frederic Still, KCVO, MD, LLD, FRCP

Sir George Frederic Still, KCVO, MD, LLD, FRCP

George Frederic Still was born on 28 February 1868 in Holloway, Middlesex (now Greater London), the fourth of the eight children of George Still (1834-1885) and Eliza Still née Andrew (1834-1914). ...

Person, Medicine

1 memorial
J. Grossman

J. Grossman

District Staff Officer in the St John Ambulance Brigade, No. 1 District Metropolitan Corps, 1906-1949. Commander in the Order of St John.

Person, Emergency Services, Medicine, Politics & Administration

1 memorial
Hospital Group

Hospital Group

We used to have this group's logo and link to their webesite but they contacted us in July 2013 requesting that we take it down.  This is the first time we have ever received such a request but of ...

Group, Medicine

1 memorial