Robert Semple (activist)


Robert Semple was a Scottish poet and activist for temperance and vegetarianism. He was president of the Irish Vegetarian Union.

Career

Semple was born in Paisley to a textile family. He was the son of Isabella Smith and James Semple. As a young boy, Semple worked as an assistant to a handloom weaver and in 1861 became a pattern designer. In 1871, he was foreman of a winding department in a textile factory. Semple became teetotal in 1869 and joined the International Organisation of Good Templars in 1870.
He was temperance lecturer in the 1870s and was a member of the Paisley Total Abstinence Society. In 1881, he lectured throughout the Scottish Highlands. He moved to Belfast in 1883 as a lecturer for the Irish Temperance League. He worked with the Hibernian Band of Hope Union in Dublin for several years and was elected grand secretary of the Good Templar Order of Ireland in 1893. He was editor of The Irish Templar. Semple was a poet and in 1884 published a collection of temperance songs, Semple's Temperance Solos. His wife was also active in the temperance movement; she died in 1902.
Semple died at his residence in Belfast, aged 79. An obituary stated that "the temperance cause in Ireland has lost a staunch and faithful advocate".

Vegetarianism

Semple became a vegetarian in 1880. He was president and honorary secretary of the Irish Vegetarian Union. He lectured for the Belfast Vegetarian Society of which he was vice-president. He had spent 5 years in Australia and described his experiences at a meeting in 1894. He reported that Australians ate a lot of meat and their animals were abused, full of disease and overworked before they were slaughtered. Semple argued that meat, eggs and seafood were not necessary foods and were too costly for the ordinary household. He stated that a family could live well on a diet of grains, peas, lentils, butterbeans, peas, vegetables, milk, nut margarine and tea. He served on the General Council of the Order of the Golden Age in 1897.

Selected publications

  • Temperance Sketches in Prose and Verse
  • ''Semple's Temperance Solos''