Early life and education The son of David Oldfield of
Ryton, Shropshire, a provision dealer, and his wife Margaret Bates, he was born on 28 February 1863 in
Shrewsbury. His father, who died in 1903, was a church organist in nearby
Condover from around the time of Josiah's birth. Oldfield was educated at
Newport Grammar School. He then taught as an assistant master at
Chipping Campden School. Matriculating in 1882 at the
University of Oxford as a non-collegiate student, Oldfield graduated B.A. in 1885, with second-class honours in civil law and theology.
Edwin Arnold was vice-president and
Mohandas Gandhi was Secretary. Oldfield met Gandhi through
Pranjivan Mehta, in 1890, and the two became friends, sharing rooms in Bayswater for some months in 1891. Further, Oldfield was associated with the
London Vegetarian Society (LVS) and editor for their publication,
The Vegetarian. He was also the secretary of the
Vegetarian Federal Union. He was a member of the
Order of the Golden Age and the
Humanitarian League. In 1895, Oldfield searched for alternatives to
leather for boots, experimenting with boots made from
India rubber, gutta-percha, and
asbestos. He found faults with all of those substances, but expressed optimism about a "vegetarian" boot. That year he submitted a paper on vegetarian boots to the autumn congress of the Vegetarian Federal Union held in Birmingham. In the early 1900s, Oldfield became disillusioned with the term vegetarianism. In 1907, he commented that "some people imagine that I am a vegetarian and that my opinion, therefore, on the question of food is warped by a certain faddism. Now, this is untrue. I am not a vegetarian and have no connection with any vegetarian society." The entry "Vegetarianism" in the
Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911) was written by Oldfield; but he did not identify as a vegetarian. He stated that "I object absolutely to vegetarianism, because the word smacks of onions and cabbage. It gives people the idea that you live on watercress and browse on odds and ends of garbage." He identified himself as Aristophagist, which he described as "eaters of the best - men and women who refuse to eat the common garbage of the undeveloped."
Fruitarianism Oldfield advocated for
fruitarianism, putting him at odds with the
Vegetarian Society. He opposed
slaughterhouses and
vivisection. A reviewer in 1909 noted that "as fruitarian dietary includes milk, butter, eggs, cheese, and honey, along with fruits, nuts, and vegetables, healthy existence is quite possible for Dr Oldfield and his followers." A recipe of his "Margaret Plum Pudding" was included in
Cecilia Maria de Candia's cookbook,
The Kitchen Garden and the Cook (1913). In 1931, Oldfield commented that "I am proud to say that the only point on which we of the Fruitarian Society disagree with Mr. Gandhi is that Mr. Gandhi will not eat eggs, because they contain Life." In 1949, he said that "as a scientist I am a fruitarian, and live on the kindly fruits of the earth which include eggs, milk, butter, cheese and honey".
Hospital founder While he was a medical student, Oldfield was involved with the Oriolet Hospital, founded in 1895 in
Loughton, Essex. It required vegetarianism of its patients. The hospital was endorsed by the Order of the Golden Age, and partly funded by
Arnold Hills. Oldfield admitted patients there, initially employed with title Warden, supported by a medical officer. Gertrude Hick, the nurse whom Oldfied later married, was trained in London and appointed sister in charge at the hospital in early 1895. By 1904 it had become the Oriolet Hygienic Home of Rest and Open Air Cottage Hospital, run by
Florence Booth for the
Salvation Army. In 1897 Oldfield announced the foundation of the Hospital of St Francis in South London, on
anti-vivisection principles. It had up to a dozen beds, in a converted town house on
New Kent Road, and gave out-patient care. It closed around 1904, its funding being transferred to
Battersea General Hospital. Oldfield was senior physician to the Lady Margaret Fruitarian Hospital in
Bromley, which he founded in 1903. No alcohol, fish or meat was permitted at the hospital; the food was cooked in
coconut oil. In 1914, Oldfield stated that "nothing is brought within the walls of the hospital that is dead; and as a result very little that is dead goes out".
Lady Margaret Manor In 1908, Oldfield founded the fruitarian Margaret Manor hospital in
Doddington, Kent. The hospital at Lady Margaret Manor was located on an extensive farm estate surrounded by acres of woodland. The estate also included an orphanage and workshop. Lady Margaret Manor was known as the "Fruitarian Village". Oldfield who was present in the cottage downstairs at the time of the fire stated that a log must have fallen out of the fireplace onto the carpet upstairs. The men worked within the grounds of the manor growing vegetables, milking cows and working in the woodland. The estate consisted of 13 men who were provided with food, lodging and pocket money. Several of the men were over 77 years of age and one of them was a war-wounded expert at wood carving. In 1898, he joined the
Essex Regiment, 1st Volunteer Battalion as an Army Surgeon with the rank of
Lieutenant, serving to 1901. During
World War I, he held a commission as
Lieutenant-Colonel of the
3rd East Anglian Field Ambulance Corps, a Territorial in the
Royal Army Medical Corps,
Legal reformer In 1901, the University of Oxford awarded Oldfield a doctorate in civil law for his thesis on
capital punishment. He founded the Society for the Abolition of Capital Punishment in the same year. He made an investigative visit to India in 1901. and best man at his wedding in 1899 was Trimbakrai Jadavrai Desai, then a law student at
Gray's Inn in London, from
Limbdi State of the
Kathiawar Agency. His experiences formed the material of a series of articles in
The Leisure Hour. One of them related to
Bhavnagar State in eastern Kathiawar, and a visit where he was accompanied by
Prabhashankar Pattani. In April 1903 Oldfield published in the
Hibbert Journal an article "The Failure of Christian Missions in India".
Later life and death Oldfield became a fellow of the
Royal Society of Medicine in 1920. He died in 1953 at the age of 89, in
Doddington, Kent. ==Views==