Edmund John Baillie FRHS FLS (4 May 1851 – 18 October 1897) was a Welsh businessman, horticulturalist and vegetarianism activist.

Edmund J. Baillie
Portrait from Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
Born
Edmund John Baillie

(1851-05-04)4 May 1851
Hawarden, England
Died18 October 1897(1897-10-18) (aged 46)
Chester, England
Occupation(s)Businessman, horticulturalist, activist
AwardsKingsley Memorial Medal

Biography

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Edmund John Baillie was born in Hawarden on 4 May 1851.[1] As a young man, Baillie worked at the firm F. and A. Dickson and Sons of Eastgate, Chester, where he eventually became its adviser and partner.[2] On the amalgamation of Dickson's two firms, he became deputy Chairman of Dicksons, Limited.[3]

Baillie was a friend of John Ruskin and was President of the John Ruskin Society in Liverpool.[3][4] He was honorary secretary and treasurer of the Grosvenor Museum at Chester and a member of the Chester Society of Natural Science. He was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society[3] and was later a Fellow.[5] He was elected for the Linnean Society of London on 21 June 1878 and became a Fellow in 1883.[3] Baillie specialised in fruit trees.[4] He also corresponded with Walt Whitman.[4][6]

Baille contributed to the Gardener's Magazine, Journal of Botany, Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener and the Proceedings of the Linnean Society.[1] For his services to natural science he was awarded the Kingsley Memorial Medal.[2] Baillie was a Presbyterian and was church secretary at the English Presbyterian Church of Wales, Chester for many years.[2] He was a spiritualist and member of the London Spiritualist Alliance.[7]

Baillie died on 18 October 1897 in Chester.[1]

Vegetarianism

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Baillie was a vegetarian. He joined the Vegetarian Society in 1878 and later served as a Vice-President.[8] Baillie authored papers in defence of vegetarianism that were read at conferences such as the International Vegetarian Congress.[2][9]

Selected publications

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Desmond, Ray. (1994). Dictionary of British And Irish Botanists And Horticulturalists. Taylor & Francis. p. 34. ISBN 0-85066-843-3
  2. ^ a b c d "Death of Mr. E. J. Baillie". The Chester Courant and Advertiser for North Wales (October 20, 1897). p. 5
  3. ^ a b c d "Edmund John Baillie". Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. 110: 34. 1898.
  4. ^ a b c "Edmund J. Baillie to Walt Whitman, 17 September 1890". The Walt Whitman Archive. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  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. 7. Retrieved 2 October 2022.
  6. ^ "Edmund J. Baillie to Walt Whitman, 19 January 1891". The Walt Whitman Archive. Retrieved 20 November 2021.
  7. ^ "Decease of Mr. Edmund J. Baillie" (PDF). Light. 17 (876): 517. 1897.
  8. ^ Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union. p. 183
  9. ^ "The International Vegetarian Congress". International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved 20 November 2021.