Howard Williams (humanitarian)

Howard Williams
Portrait from Fifty Years of Food Reform (1898)
Born	(1837-01-06)6 January 1837 Whatley, Mendip, England
Died	21 September 1931(1931-09-21) (aged 94) Aspley Guise, England
Education	St John's College, Cambridge (BA, 1860; MA, 1863)
Occupations	Activist historian writer
Notable work	The Ethics of Diet (1883)
Spouse	Eliza Smith ​ ​ (m. 1860; died 1906)​
Family	Henry John Williams (brother)

Howard Williams (6 January 1837 – 21 September 1931) was an English activist, historian, and writer. He advocated for humanitarianism and vegetarianism. Williams was noted for authoring The Ethics of Diet, a history of vegetarianism, which was influential on the Victorian vegetarian movement. He was also the inspiration and co-founder of the Humanitarian League and served as Vice-President of the London Vegetarian Society.

Williams was a born on 6 January 1837, in Whatley, Mendip, the fifth son of the Reverend Hamilton John Williams and Margaret Sophia.^[1] His older brother was the priest and animal rights and vegetarianism activist Henry John Williams.^[2][3]

Williams was home educated by private tutors,^[4] before pursuing a degree in history at St John's College, Cambridge, where he earned a BA in 1860 and an MA in 1863.^[1] During his time there, Williams developed a close friendship with Professor Newman. Through this relationship, he cultivated a profound interest in humanitarian causes, a passion that persisted throughout his life.^[4]

Williams was initially destined for a career in the Church but ultimately chose not to enter Holy Orders. Instead, he embarked on a career as a private tutor, a profession he practiced for a number of years.^[4]

Williams published his first book, The Superstitions of Witchcraft, in 1865.^[1] It traces the evolution of witchcraft beliefs from ancient traditions to tools of persecution in medieval Europe, highlighting their decline with Enlightenment rationalism.^[5]

In 1872, he adopted vegetarianism and became an anti-vivisectionist. Writing in 1874, Williams highlighted the "eating house" as a powerful tool for vegetarian propaganda, arguing that offering affordable, appealing dishes like pies and savouries was more effective than directly promoting a vegetarian diet.^[6] He later authored The Ethics of Diet, a historical account of European vegetarianism, which was published in 1883; the book is considered to be a vegetarian classic, an authoritative text and went through multiple editions.^[1]

In the 1880s, Williams expanded his academic endeavours to encompass a variety of topics. In 1885, he published a comprehensive study of the correspondence between Pope and Swift, followed in 1887 by his translation of selected dialogues by Lucian.^[1]

Williams was the inspiration for and one of the founding members of the Humanitarian League, in 1891, which "opposed all avoidable suffering on any sentient being".^[7][8] He remained on the board for several years and authored the "Pioneers of humanity" section for the league's journal, which was later published as a popular pamphlet.^[1] He also served as the Vice-President of the London Vegetarian Society^[4] and was a board member of the Animal Defence and Anti-Vivisection Society.^[7]

Williams married Eliza Smith on 20 November 1860;^[1] she died around 1906.^[4]

In his later years, Williams chose a more secluded lifestyle, dedicating his time to gardening, tutoring, and canoeing from his home in Aspley Guise, near Woburn, Bedfordshire. He died there on 21 September 1931.^[1]

• The Superstitions of Witchcraft (1865)
• The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-eating (1883)
• English Letters and Letter Writers of the Eighteenth Century: Swift and Pope (with explanatory notes, 1886)
• Lucian's Dialogues, namely the Dialogues of the Gods, of the Sea-Gods, and of the Dead; Zeus the Tragedian, the Ferry-Boat etc. (translated with notes and a preliminary memoir, 1888)
• "Pioneers of Humanity" (The Humanitarian, 1907; later published as a pamphlet)^[1]

• Henry S. Salt, "The Late Mr Howard Williams: An Appreciation", The Vegetarian News, October 1931
• Jaime de Magalhães Lima, O Vegetarismo e a Moralidade das raças, 1912
• Jon Gregerson, Vegetarianism: A History, Jain Publishing Company, California, 1994, pp. 78, 89.
• Howard Williams and Carol J. Adams, The Ethics of Diet: A Catena of Authorities Deprecatory of the Practice of Flesh-Eating, University of Illinois Press, 2003. ISBN 0-252-07130-1

• Works by Howard Williams at Project Gutenberg
• Works by or about Howard Williams at the Internet Archive
• Works by Howard Williams at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
• Howard Williams at the International Vegetarian Union