Thomas Owen (vegetarian)

Thomas Owen
Born	1838 Oswestry, Shropshire, England
Died	(1916-05-26)26 May 1916 (aged 78) Oswestry, Shropshire, England
Resting place	Oswestry Cemetery
Occupations	Bookseller stationer printer editor writer activist
Known for	Advocacy for temperance vegetarianism
Spouse	Mary Batten ​ ​ (m. 1866; died 1876)​ [1][2] Mary Sarah Oliver ​ (m. 1878)​
Children	8 (4 from first marriage, 4 from second)

Thomas Owen (1838 – 26 May 1916) was an English bookseller, stationer, printer, editor, writer, and activist. He was an advocate of temperance and vegetarianism, serving as vice president of the Vegetarian Society. He was the owner of Thomas Owen & Son and the proprietor of the Oswestry Commercial Circular, which he used to promote a number of causes.

Biography

Early life

Thomas Owen Jr. was born in Oswestry, Shropshire, in the third quarter of 1838.[3] He was the son of Thomas Owen Sr. of Sweeney.[4]

Career

In 1853, Owen was apprenticed to a bookseller-stationer.[5] Following this, he joined the bookselling and printing firm of George Lewis. Owen later bought the firm from Lewis, with the business operating into the 20th century under the name Thomas Owen & Son.[6] From 1879, Owen was the proprietor of the Oswestry Commercial Circular, which he used to promote teetotalism, vegetarianism, sanitary reform, air bathing, skin health, 'lung culture', and Turkish baths.[5][7] Owen claimed to have 10,000 readers.[5]

Vegetarianism

Owen was an activist for vegetarianism for 50 years, authoring works on the subject.[8] He and his wife were local leaders in vegetarianism[5] and he served as a vice president of the Vegetarian Society.[9] Owen followed a raw food diet, consisting of uncooked foods including nuts and fruit cereals. He was also a teetotaller and non-smoker.[8] He believed that adopting vegetarianism would reduce crime and increase happiness worldwide. Owen held that societal progress depended on eliminating the consumption of meat and alcohol, asserting that true improvement could only be achieved when these habits were abandoned.[10] He also asserted that: "The food which God commanded our first parents to eat was exactly the same kind as we vegetarians now principally use."[9]

Personal life and death

Owen's first wife, Mary Batten,[4] with whom he had four children, died in July 1876.[11] He married Mary Sarah Oliver (née Corney) on 25 July 1878 at All Saints, Old Swan, Lancashire,[12] a widow with one child.[11] They also had four children together; two of his sons from this second marriage, Herbert and John, were killed in action during the First World War.[11] His second wife contributed to the vegetarian children's magazine, The Dairy Basket, and in 1893 authored a tract on vegetarianism, The Best and Most Nutritional Food.[7]

Owen built a Turkish bath in his house, after writing to David Urquhart for advice. Owen later authored a pamphlet on how he constructed it.[13]

Owen died at Oswestry on 26 May 1916, at the age of 78.[8] He was buried at Oswestry Cemetery on 29 May.[14]

Selected publications

• Personal Reminiscences of Oswestry, Fifty Years Ago (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1904; OCLC 771781742)
• Breakfast at Noon! A Clear and Precise Explanation of the Noon-Breakfast System (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1906; OCLC 771781737)
• How to become Hale, Hearty and Happy (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1906; OCLC 771781740)
• The Use of Heat in the Prevention and Treatment of Disease (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1906; OCLC 562354773)
• Pessimism: Its Cause and Cure. A lay Sermonette (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1910; OCLC 774444375)
• The Kettle Cure (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1911; OCLC 774444374)
• How I Came to Build a Turkish Bath: A Personal Narrative (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1910; OCLC 771781739)
• The One Infallible Cure for Indigestion: Breakfast at Noon, etc (Oswestry: T. Owen & Son, 1915; OCLC 562354755)

References

1. "Marriages Sep 1866". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
2. "Memorial Form: Mary Owen and William Thomas Owen". Shropshire Archives. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
3. "Births Sep 1838". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
4. Watkin, Isaac (1920). Oswestry: With an Account of Its Old Houses, Shops, Etc., and Some of Their Occupants. Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Company. p. 237.
5. Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era". The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. p. 89.
6. Greene, Miranda. "Oswestry Town Trail - Leg Street and Salop Road". Discovering Shropshire's History. Archived from the original on 11 April 2021. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
7. Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food reformers of the Victorian Era". The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF). Vol. 1. University of Southampton. p. 69.
8. "Pioneer Vegetarian". Birmingham Gazette. 27 May 1916. p. 5. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
9. Kubisz, Marzena (2023). "The Daisy Basket and the Rise of the Young Vegetarian Subject". Victorian Periodicals Review. 56 (1): 67–87. ISSN 1712-526X.
10. "A Social Panacea". The Guardian. 19 October 1909. p. 4. Retrieved 25 January 2025 – via Newspapers.com.
11. Melange, Janis. "OWEN, Herbert M. Second Lieutenant". Men on the Gates. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
12. "Marriages at All Saints in the District of Old Swan, Liverpool". Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerk Project. Retrieved 25 January 2025.
13. "OWEN, Thomas - bookseller, stationer and printer, 1838-1916". Victorian Turkish Baths. Retrieved 24 January 2025.
14. "Owen, Thomas". Oswestry Cemetery Project. Retrieved 25 January 2025.