Alexandrine Veigele
Alexandrine Veigele was a French-born activist for vegetarianism and women's rights, later naturalised as a British citizen. She settled in London with her husband and daughter Adrienne, where she adopted vegetarianism in 1888 and joined the London Vegetarian Society. In 1895 she founded the Women's Vegetarian Union, the first vegetarian society established specifically for women, and served as its president. The organisation promoted dietary reform through cookery classes, lectures and social events, and associated abstention from meat with sobriety, philanthropy and women's domestic influence. Her daughter was also active in the movement. Veigele additionally created a Vegetarian Depot and an employment agency for vegetarians, and later became a founder member of the Women's Progressive Union.
Biography
Early life
Alexandrine Veigele was born in Paris in 1840. She later married John Veigele. They moved to London around 1867 with their daughter Adrienne, then aged five; her husband worked there as a tailor.Vegetarianism activism
Veigele adopted vegetarianism in 1888 for economic and health reasons, after learning of the diet from a prospective boarder, Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace. By the early 1890s she was active in the vegetarian movement, joining the London Vegetarian Society. In 1898, she published Is Meat Eating Beneficial to Health? A Paddington Lady's Experience.Women's Vegetarian Union
On 5 March 1895, Veigele founded the Women's Vegetarian Union at Granville House, Arundel Street, London, with 50 women attending the inaugural meeting. She was elected the organisation's first president. It was described as the first vegetarian society established specifically for women. Full members pledged to abstain from meat, while associates undertook to promote knowledge of health and vegetarian principles.Within two years membership had risen to about 300, including women from France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Seychelles and Switzerland. Prominent English supporters included May Yates of the Bread Reform League, the lecturer Chandos Leigh Hunt Wallace, and Mrs. Allinson, wife of the physician and bread reformer Thomas Allinson.
The society promoted vegetarian cookery, linking dietary reform with sobriety and temperance, and argued that abstaining from meat could reduce alcohol consumption. Its work included lectures, cookery demonstrations, social gatherings and the provision of low-cost meals for the poor.
It also operated a Vegetarian Depot that supplied food and household items, and an agency that placed vegetarian servants in vegetarian households. These enterprises were presented as both practical support for vegetarians and philanthropic schemes providing pensions, accommodation and employment opportunities. Veigele's daughter served as honorary superintendent of the Depot and as honorary secretary of the union.
Feminist periodicals such as Shafts and The Woman's Signal covered the Union's activities, connecting the programme with wider debates on women's rights, domestic reform and social welfare.
Women's Progressive Union
Veigele was, along with Margaret Sibthorp, a founder member of the Women's Progressive Union. Her daughter later established the Women's International Progressive Union, with her mother serving as its honorary secretary.Later years and death
According to the 1901 United Kingdom census, Veigele was recorded as a widowed, naturalised British subject.Veigele's final years were marked by her daughter's illness and financial difficulties. She died at St. John's Home, Raynes Park, Surrey, in June 1913, aged 72, shortly after attempting to establish a boarding house at Crowthorne. She was buried at Morden Cemetery on 11 June.