Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 31, 2026

A. M. Cole

A. M. Cole was an English vegetarianism activist, cookery teacher, and editor. She worked with the Vegetarian Federal Union, the London Vegetarian Association, the London Vegetarian Society, the Women's Vegetarian Union, the West London Vegetarian Society, and the Battersea, Clapham and Wandsworth Vegetarian Society. She edited The Children's Realm and held posts in the Children's Dinner Fund and the Women's Freedom League.

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A. M. Cole
Cole in 1894
Occupations
Years active1893–1921
Known forWork in vegetarian organisations

A. M. Cole (fl. 1893–1921) was an English vegetarianism activist, cookery teacher, and editor. She worked with the Vegetarian Federal Union, the London Vegetarian Association, the London Vegetarian Society, the Women's Vegetarian Union, the West London Vegetarian Society, and the Battersea, Clapham and Wandsworth Vegetarian Society. She edited The Children's Realm and held posts in the Children's Dinner Fund and the Women's Freedom League.

Career

In 1893, Cole prepared a set of vegetarian menus that received high commendation at the Universal Cookery Exhibition. The menus were later published as "Menus for a Week in November" in Rachel Swain's Swain Cookery and in Florence I. Nicholson's The Jubilee Cookery Book: Vegetarian Recipes.12

Cole worked in several London vegetarian organisations. She assisted Philip G. Tovey in founding the Battersea, Clapham and Wandsworth Vegetarian Society, with A. C. Field.3: 323  She was a committee member of the Women's Vegetarian Union and gave a cookery lesson for the union at the offices of the Vegetarian Federal Union in 1898.3: 338 4

According to James Gregory, Cole worked as an assistant to Nicholson and later to Charlotte Despard.5 She succeeded Nicholson as editor of The Children's Realm.6 By 1914, she was honorary secretary of the Vegetarian Federal Union.7

Cole gave public talks and demonstrations on vegetarian cookery. In 1910, as secretary of the West London Vegetarian Society, she gave a cookery demonstration at a vegetarian dinner held by the society at Pirbright Hall, Southfields.8 In 1913, as honorary secretary of the London Vegetarian Society, she spoke on "What is Vegetarianism" at a meeting at the Adult School in Sutton.9

In July 1915, The Jewish Chronicle published an interview with Cole, then secretary of the London Vegetarian Association, on vegetarianism and Jewish dietary practice. She argued that a vegetarian diet was compatible with Jewish religious observance and discussed food economy during the First World War.10 In 1917, when described as a former organising secretary of the London Vegetarian Association, she gave cookery demonstrations for the Food and Cookery Association in Southampton, where she presented vegetarian menus and methods for reducing food waste.11

Cole was listed as secretary of the Children's Dinner Fund in 1916.12 Hilda Kean writes that Nicholson established the fund for underfed children, distributing cheap meals of vegetable soup, wholemeal bread, and wholemeal currant bread.13 In 1921, Cole was honorary secretary and organiser of the Women's Freedom League Settlement in Nine Elms, which provided daily penny and halfpenny hot meals for more than 100 children and operated a milk depot.14

Publications

See also

See also

References

References

  1. Swain, Rachel (1895). "Menus for a Week in November". Swain Cookery: With Health Hints. Fowler & Wells Company. pp. 164–172 – via Google Books.
  2. Nicholson, Florence I. (1897). "Menus for a Week in November". The Jubilee Cookery Book: Vegetarian Recipes. London: West End Press. pp. 85–92.
  3. Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (May 2002). The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF) (PhD thesis). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  4. "Women's Vegetarian Union". The Vegetarian Messenger and Review. 1 (9): 428. September 1898 – via Google Books.
  5. Gregory, James Richard Thomas Elliott (May 2002). "Biographical Index of British Vegetarians and Food Reformers of the Victorian Era" (PDF). The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections (PDF) (PhD thesis). Vol. 2. University of Southampton. Retrieved 25 May 2026.
  6. Kubisz, Marzena (14 August 2024). Children's Vegetarian Culture in the Victorian Era: The Juvenile Food Reformers Press and Literary Change. London: Routledge. pp. 64, 74, 139–140. doi:10.4324/9781003400042. ISBN 978-1-003-40004-2.
  7. Bedborough, George (1914). "Preface". Stories from the Children's Realm. London: Vegetarian Federal Union.
  8. "A Vegetarian Dinner". The Wandsworth Borough News. London. 11 March 1910. p. 4. Retrieved 26 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. "Vegetarianism". The Sutton and Cheam Advertiser. Sutton. 21 February 1913. p. 3. Retrieved 26 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. "Vegetarianism and the Jew: Interview for the Jewish Chronicle with Miss A. M. Cole". The Jewish Chronicle. 16 July 1915. p. 12. Retrieved 26 May 2026 – via Internet Archive.
  11. "Cooking economy: Demonstration at Southampton". Southern Daily Echo. Southampton. 11 April 1917. p. 3. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  12. Burdett, Henry C. (1916). Burdett's Hospitals and Charities: Being the Year Book of Philanthropy. Scientific Press. p. 877.
  13. Kean, Hilda (1998). Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain Since 1800. Reaktion Books. p. 123. ISBN 978-1-86189-014-6.
  14. "Child-Welfare in Nine Elms". The Daily Telegraph. 15 February 1921. p. 15. Retrieved 25 May 2026 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. Gas World. Vol. 63. Benn Brothers Limited. 1915. p. 43.