Joseph Knight (vegetarian)
Joseph Knight was an English social reformer and writer. He played a prominent role in the late 19th and early 20th-century vegetarian and temperance movements in the United Kingdom. He served as secretary of the Vegetarian Society from 1885 to 1895 and founded the Scottish Vegetarian Society in 1883. A prolific pamphleteer and public speaker, Knight advocated a plant-based diet on ethical, health, and economic grounds. He also edited The Daisy Basket, the first British vegetarian magazine for children, and contributed widely to vegetarian and reformist periodicals.
Biography
Early life
Knight was born around 1854 in Spitalfields, Middlesex, the son of William and Eliza Knight. He was a member of the Band of Hope from the age of six.Activism
As an adult, Knight became a passionate and well-known promoter of temperance and vegetarianism. He defined vegetarianism as the practice of living on products of the vegetable kingdom with or without the addition of dairy products and eggs to the exclusion of fish, fowl and red meat. He said that the consumption of anything belonging to the animal kingdom which was not possessed of life was consistent with vegetarianism. He argued against the cruelty of the slaughter of animals for food and stated that a vegetarian diet was more economical and healthy than a diet that contained meat.Knight joined the Vegetarian Society in 1881 and held various roles within the organisation. In 1885, he became its secretary, a position he held until 1895. Knight's efforts led to the establishment of the Scottish Vegetarian Society in Glasgow in 1883, where he served as vice-president.
Founded in 1883, the Daisy Society was Britain's first children’s vegetarian group. In 1893, Beatrice Lindsay, editor of The Dietetic Reformer and Vegetarian Messenger launched The Daisy Basket, the first vegetarian magazine for children. Under the pseudonym "Uncle John", Knight edited the magazine from 1893 to 1894. It featured a diverse range of content, including book reviews, letters, short fiction, and poetry.
Knight authored numerous pamphlets and articles on vegetarianism. Additionally, he delivered lectures promoting the cause. In 1889, the Leicester Vegetarian Society was re-established following a lecture by Knight. The same year, he was a speaker at a popular Vegetarian Society conference in Sheffield. Attendees included William E. A. Axon, James Clark, Peter Foxcroft, R. S. Wilson and many others. His speech was on "The Biblical Aspect of Vegetarianism" which argued the Bible was generally favourable to the abstinence of animal flesh.
Personal life and death
Knight preferred to eat raw vegetables and thistles. He lived in Manchester and later worked as a journalist in Hereford.Knight married Mary Ann Cooper in 1874. She lectured on vegetarianism and wrote on the subject under the name Minnie Knight.
Knight died in January 1928 at the age of 74 at Hereford General Hospital due to complications from a fractured thigh, which he sustained in a fall on the snow in the previous December.