Edmund J. Baillie

Edmund J. Baillie
FRHS FLS
Edmund J. Baillie FRHS FLS
	Portrait from Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
Born	Edmund John Baillie; 4 May 1851; Hawarden, England
Died	18 October 1897 (aged 46); Chester, England
Occupation(s)	Businessman, horticulturalist, activist
Awards	Kingsley Memorial Medal

Edmund John Baillie FRHS FLS (4 May 1851 – 18 October 1897) was a Welsh businessman, horticulturalist and vegetarianism activist.

Biography

Edmund John Baillie was born in Hawarden on 4 May 1851.^[1] As a young man, Baillie worked at the firm F. and A. Dickson and Sons of Eastgate, Chester, where he eventually became its adviser and partner.^[2] On the amalgamation of Dickson's two firms, he became deputy Chairman of Dicksons, Limited.^[3]

Baillie was a friend of John Ruskin and was President of the John Ruskin Society in Liverpool.^[3]^[4] He was honorary secretary and treasurer of the Grosvenor Museum at Chester and a member of the Chester Society of Natural Science. He was a member of the Royal Horticultural Society^[3] and was later a Fellow.^[5] He was elected for the Linnean Society of London on 21 June 1878 and became a Fellow in 1883.^[3] Baillie specialised in fruit trees.^[4] He also corresponded with Walt Whitman.^[4]^[6]

Baille contributed to the Gardener's Magazine, Journal of Botany, Journal of Horticulture, Cottage Gardener and the Proceedings of the Linnean Society.^[1] For his services to natural science he was awarded the Kingsley Memorial Medal.^[2] Baillie was a Presbyterian and was church secretary at the English Presbyterian Church of Wales, Chester for many years.^[2] He was a spiritualist and member of the London Spiritualist Alliance.^[7]

Baillie died on 18 October 1897 in Chester.^[1]

Vegetarianism

Baillie was a vegetarian. He joined the Vegetarian Society in 1878 and later served as a Vice-President.^[8] Baillie authored papers in defence of vegetarianism that were read at conferences such as the International Vegetarian Congress.^[2]^[9]