R. E. O'Callaghan
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Portrait from Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
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| Born | Robert Elliott O'Callaghan 1855 (1855)
London, England
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| Died | 21 December 1936 (aged 81)
Manchester, England
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| Occupation(s) | Activist, lecturer, writer |
| Spouse |
Mary Ann Barry (m. 1888) |
| Children | 1 |
Robert Elliott O'Callaghan (1855 – 21 December 1936) was an English vegetarianism activist, lecturer and writer.
Robert Elliott O'Callaghan was born in London in 1855;[1] he was of Irish Catholic descent.[2]: 88 O'Callaghan's vegetarianism was inspired by one of Francis William Newman's lectures on vegetarianism that he spotted through a shop window.[3] In 1880, he joined the London Food Reform Society, the following year becoming a member of the Executive.[3] O'Callaghan was known for his success giving lectures on vegetarianism with illustrations using a magic lantern.[3]
O'Callaghan served as the official lecturer to the Vegetarian Association,[4] the secretary of the London Vegetarian Society,[5] and later as the First Secretary of the Vegetarian Federal Union, from 1890, and then as an agent to the Federal Union for the Southern Counties.[3]
In 1888, he married Mary Ann Barry;[6] they had one daughter.[7] He became the owner of the London vegetarian restaurant, the Wheatsheaf, at 13 Rathbone Place, Oxford Street, which he took over from Mrs Britton.[2]: 88
In 1900, O'Callaghan founded the Catholic Humane League, with the intention of the "extension of humane principles among Catholics, in accordance with Catholic instincts and the teaching of the Church", serving as Honorary Secretary.[8]
O'Callaghan died in Manchester, at the age of 81,[9] on 21 December 1936.
