Robert Semple (activist)
Robert Semple | |
|---|---|
 Portrait from Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898) | |
| Born | 1841 |
| Died | 1920 (aged 79) |
| Occupation(s) | Poet, activist |
Robert Semple (1841–1920) was a Scottish poet and activist for temperance and vegetarianism. He was president of the Irish Vegetarian Union.
Career
[edit]Semple was born in Paisley to a textile family.[1] He was the son of Isabella Smith and James Semple.[2] 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.[1] Semple became teetotal in 1869 and joined the International Organisation of Good Templars in 1870.[3]
He was temperance lecturer in the 1870s and was a member of the Paisley Total Abstinence Society.[1] In 1881, he lectured throughout the Scottish highlands.[1] He moved to Belfast in 1883 as a lecturer for the Irish Temperance League.[4] 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.[1][4][3] He was editor of The Irish Templar.[3] Semple was a poet and in 1884 published a collection of temperance songs, Semple's Temperance Solos.[2] His wife was also active in the temperance movement; she died in 1902.[5]
Semple died at his residence in Belfast, aged 79.[4] An obituary stated that "the temperance cause in Ireland has lost a staunch and faithful advocate".[6]
Vegetarianism
[edit]Semple became a vegetarian in 1880.[7] He was president (1894–1897) and honorary secretary (1901) of the Irish Vegetarian Union.[8][9][10] He lectured for the Belfast Vegetarian Society of which he was vice-president.[11][12] 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.[7] 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.[13] He served on the General Council of the Order of the Golden Age in 1897.[14]
Selected publications
[edit]- Temperance Sketches in Prose and Verse (1879)
- Semple's Temperance Solos (1884)
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e "Robert Semple". Piston, Pen & Press. 2025. Archived from the original on January 11, 2025.
- ^ a b Brown, Robert (1893). Paisley Burns Clubs 1805-1893. London: Alexander Gardner. p. 170.
- ^ a b c "R. Semple, G. Sec'y of Ireland". The International Good Templar. 8 (1): 73. 1895.
- ^ a b c "Pithy Provincial News". The Irish Independent. February 10, 1920. p. 6. (subscription required)
- ^ "Death of a Forres Lady in Belfast". The Aberdeen Daily Journal. September 9, 1902. p. 4. (subscription required)
- ^ "Death of Mr. R. Semple". Weekly Telegraph. February 14, 1920. p. 2. (subscription required)
- ^ a b "The Irish Vegetarian Union". The Northern Whig. March 9, 1894. p. 7. (subscription required)
- ^ "The Irish Vegetarian Union". The Ulster Echo. May 22, 1894. p. 4. (subscription required)
- ^ "The Irish Vegetarian Union". The Northern Whig. April 27, 1901. p. 7. (subscription required)
- ^ "Irish Vegetarian Union Annual Report 1897". International Vegetarian Union. 2025. Archived from the original on January 11, 2025.
- ^ "Belfast Vegetarian Society". Belfast News-Letter. October 17, 1916. p. 6. (subscription required)
- ^ "The Meaning of a Meatless Day". The Belfast-Newsletter. December 4, 1916. p. 8. (subscription required)
- ^ "Economy in Diet". The Belfast News-Letter. January 29, 1916. p. 7. (subscription required)
- ^ "The Order of the Golden Age" (PDF). The Herald of the Golden Age. 2 (9). 1897.