In late 1944, amid the turbulence of wartime Britain, a quiet revolution took root in a modest meeting room in London. Donald Watson, a passionate advocate who described himself as a non-dairy vegetarian, gathered with five fellow thinkers to address an uncomfortable truth within the vegetarian community. For decades, those who abstained from meat had shared an umbrella with those who also shunned dairy, eggs, and all other animal exploitation. Watson believed that distinction deserved its own identity, its own language, and its own dedicated movement.
Alongside his dedicated compatriot Elsie Shrigley, Watson set out to define a philosophy that went well beyond the dinner table. Later that same year, in his home city of Leicester, Watson and Shrigley formally founded the Vegan Society. To give their fledgling cause a clear voice, Watson coined the word vegan by taking the beginning and end of vegetarian. The term captured a clean, decisive break, marking both the origin and the ultimate logical conclusion of the vegetarian ideal. Together with the society, they launched the quarterly publication The Vegan News, setting down principles that would steadily reshape global culture over the coming decades.
The impulse behind their breakthrough had deep historical roots. Centuries before Watson sat down to publish his first newsletter, ancient Greek Orphic traditions rejected the consumption of anything with a soul, refusing to eat eggs or even wear wool. Pythagoras championed ethical vegetarianism, establishing a compassionate lifestyle that inspired thinkers across millennia. Eastern traditions within Hinduism and Buddhism wove non-violence and reincarnation into dietary ethics long before Western reformers embraced the cause. Yet, for much of recorded history, those who avoided all animal products lacked a distinct name. In the nineteenth century, when the term vegetarianism gained widespread currency from the Latin word meaning lively or vigorous, it encompassed everyone from egg-eating reformers to strict plant eaters.
By the time the twentieth century arrived, the industrialization of agriculture had begun to change the stakes. Early pioneers such as the English physician William Lambe and the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley had demonstrated the viability of living entirely on plant foods. Reformers in continental Europe gathered at places like Monte Verità in Switzerland, experimenting with natural therapies and strict plant diets that paved the way for modern lifestyle reform. However, mainstream society routinely viewed these individuals with suspicion, casting them as sickly, misguided sectarians who burdened themselves with unnecessary sentimental restrictions. Conventional medicine long maintained that human health was impossible without animal protein.
Watson and Shrigley recognized that clear language was essential to dispel such prejudice and to create a coherent moral framework. They understood that vegetarianism, while noble, allowed for the continued use and slaughter of animals in the dairy and egg industries. For Watson, Elsie Shrigley, and their small band of visionaries, the new philosophy had to confront the broader reality of animal exploitation. Their definition quickly grew to encompass clothing like leather, wool, silk, and down, as well as entertainment venues like circuses, zoos, and blood sports.
The publication of The Vegan News was an act of profound optimism. In an era marked by scarcity, rationing, and global conflict, Watson and Shrigley offered an expansive vision of universal peace and human responsibility. They argued that human wellbeing was inextricably linked to our treatment of other living beings and the stewardship of the earth. What began as a tiny gathering of six individuals in wartime England steadily blossomed into an international movement.
Today, the scientific and medical landscape has fundamentally transformed, validating the principles that Watson and Shrigley defended against heavy cultural skepticism. Major epidemiological studies and global dietetic associations now confirm that a well-planned vegan diet meets nutritional needs at every stage of life, offering substantial protection against cardiovascular disease, type two diabetes, hypertension, and several chronic ailments. Modern environmental research has added another powerful dimension, highlighting how plant-based systems drastically lower greenhouse gas emissions, preserve finite land and water supplies, and offer viable solutions to global food security.
The breakthrough of 1944 was far more than a clever linguistic exercise. By coining a single, resonant word and providing a welcoming institutional home for it, Donald Watson and Elsie Shrigley gave form to a enduring ethical vision. Their modest wartime initiative in Leicester ignited a global conversation that continues to redefine our relationship with animals, our health, and the planet we share.
Bibliographic Information
- Title: Veganismus: Grundlagen, Vorteile, Risiken (Published in the C.H.Beck Wissen / Sachbuch series)
- Subtitle: Entwicklung, Formen, ernährungsphysiologische Bewertung, Krankheitsprävention und praktische Umsetzung
- Author: Prof. Dr. Claus Leitzmann (Biochemist, Nutritionist, former Director of the Institute of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Giessen, recipient of the Zabel Prize for Cancer Prevention and the Broermann Foundation Prize for Preventive Nutrition)
- Publisher: Verlag C.H.Beck oHG, München
- Publication Year: 2018 (Originalausgabe)
- Edition: 1st Edition (2018)
- ISBN:
- Print: 978-3-406-72684-2
- eBook: 978-3-406-72685-9
- Historical Period Covered: From primate evolution (~60 million years ago), the Paleolithic/Neolithic transitions, Antiquity (6th century BCE), the Industrial Revolution, 19th/20th-century Life Reform movements, up to contemporary 21st-century nutritional science (through 2018)
- Main Subject Areas: Nutritional Science, Biochemistry, History of Vegetarianism/Veganism, Preventive Medicine, Public Health, Environmental Ecology, Agricultural Economics, Bioethics and Animal Rights.
(Ch. II, IV)