On this day in vegan history · September 2, 1910
Donald Watson, Who Coined 'Vegan,' Is Born
A Yorkshire schoolboy horrified by a pig slaughter on his uncle's farm grew up to invent a word and start a movement that outlived every critic he ever had.
The facts
- Born
- 2 September 1910, Mexborough, Yorkshire, England
- Turned vegetarian
- 1924, age 14, by New Year's resolution
- Vegan Society founded
- November 1944, Leicester, England
- Died
- 16 November 2005, Keswick, Cumbria, aged 95
Donald Watson was born on 2 September 1910 in Mexborough, a mining town in Yorkshire, England, where his father was a schoolteacher. As a boy he spent time on his uncle George's farm, and watching a pig slaughtered there turned the place from an idyll into what he later called a death row for animals. He gave up meat in 1924, at fourteen, and dairy about eighteen years after that, once he decided milk production was no kinder than the slaughterhouse. In November 1944, in Leicester, Watson and five others, including his future wife Dorothy Morgan, founded The Vegan Society and coined the word 'vegan' itself, built from the first three and last two letters of 'vegetarian.'
In their words
The day in the words of the people who were there. Every quote is verbatim, and every source links out so you can check it.
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It is not every day a movement is born which in its general application could revolutionise mankind.
Donald Watson, speaking shortly before his death in 2005
Source: The Vegan Society -
I could never understand what the pigs "gave", but they seemed such friendly creatures - always glad to see me.
Donald Watson, recalling his uncle's farm in Wikipedia's biography
Source: Wikipedia
Why it still matters
Watson's word gave a scattered idea a name and an organization, and eighty years on 'vegan' is the term the entire plant-based movement still runs on.
Sources
This history is still being written.
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