Mary Ann Yates Corkling, also known as May Yates, (18 May 1850 – 30 May 1938) was an English painter and food reformer. She spread news of the claimed health benefits for wholemeal bread and became a vegetarian out of her regard for other animals.
Mary Corkling | |
|---|---|
 Corkling (middle, far-left) in 1891 | |
| Born | Mary Ann Yates Corkling 18 May 1850 Withington, Manchester, England |
| Died | 30 May 1938 (aged 88) London, England |
| Other names | May Yates |
| Occupation(s) | Painter, food reformer |
Biography
editEarly life
editCorkling was born in Withington, a suburb of Manchester, to Mary Anne Corkling (née Booth) and Robert Yates Corkling, who was a cashier and aspiring merchant.[1]
One source relates that her parents were concerned at how strongly myopic their daughter was, and she was excused from drawing in school in case it strained her eyes. However, she chanced to copy a painting and do some drawing from life, which revealed a talent for painting. She enrolled in Dudley School of Art. A later source says the family moved house to where her talent was encouraged. She was sent to Sicily to practise her skills.[2]
Paintings
editCorkling mainly painted flowers and figures. In 1878, she had a painting shown at the Royal Academy.[3] In 1875 she exhibited with the Society of Lady Artists and several other galleries.
Food reform
editCorkling's membership of the Ladies' Sanitary Association showed her burgeoning interest in social reform, but she focused most of her energy on food reform.[1]
During her time in Sicily, Corkling noticed how healthy the peasants were and associated this with the brown bread they ate. She sold her own jewellery to fund experiments to wean Manchester from the popular white wheaten bread. This led to the formation of the Bread Reform League in 1880 at Kensington Town Hall, with Corkling leading it.[4] At her parents' request she used the name May Yates for this, as it was thought unseemly for a woman of the Corkling family to be a public figure. T. H. Huxley and others offered their support.[1]
Corkling wrote on the advantages of brown bread[6] and other women volunteered their time to give lectures on the subject. Money at the League was tight and Corkling tried to use her own income to fund pamphlets. Her interest in food reform led her to become a vegetarian and she was secretary of the London Vegetarian Society (1890–1893).[7]
The Bread Reform League later merged with the London Vegetarian Society. Corkling promoted whole grains, vegetarianism and condemned alcohol and white bread.[8] She influenced Mahatma Gandhi to support the whole grain movement.[8] In 1892 The Staff of Life by "May Yates" was published in the Society's journal, The Vegetarian. Around that time, she also travelled to Belgium to speak to large audiences in French. In 1895, she led the World's Women's Christian Temperance Union in forming a food reform department and herself became a full vegetarian. She spoke of humanity's obligation to other animals and in 1901 led the Women's Vegetarian Union briefly.[1]
In 1894, Yates lectured on the benefits of a vegetarian diet in New Zealand.[9] She commented that meat eating is "opposed to the highest ideal of humanity, which is horrified at the thought of our daily food being associated with the bloodshed, cruelty, and death inseparably connected with the slaughter-house". She authored a pamphlet listing twelve reasons for vegetarianism.[9]
Wholemeal bread underwent a revival, with support of the Daily Mail and Lyons teashops. In 1916 she wrote in The Graphic about the advantages of not eating white bread.[5] However, the message became harder to put forward during the First World War, when "war bread" was introduced, although it was created according to recipes that Corkling had supplied. In 1932, her efforts in food reform were acknowledged with a grant from the government.[1]
Death
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e f Gregory, James (25 May 2006). "Corkling, Mary Ann Yates [pseud. May Yates] (1850–1938), food reformer". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/74770. ISBN 9780198614128. Retrieved 9 July 2020. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
- ^ Clayton, Ellen Creathorne (1876). English Female Artists. Tinsley Brothers, 8 Catherine St., Strand. pp. 270–271.
- ^ Christopher Wood (1978). The Dictionary of Victorian Painters. Antique Collectors' Club. ISBN 0-902028-72-3.
- ^ "Brown is Best: the Reform Bread League". History Today, Vol. 55, 5 May 2005.
- ^ a b Corkling, Mary (25 November 1916). "The Sins of the Miller". The Graphic. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
- ^ "On " Bread Reform," by MISS YATES, Hon. Sec. Bread Reform League". Transactions of the Sanitary Institute of Great Britain. 4 (1): 131–138. 1 January 1883. doi:10.1177/146642408300400113. ISSN 0266-7614. S2CID 221052102.
- ^ Gregory, James. (2002). "The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c. 1840-1901". eprints.soton.ac.uk. Retrieved 1 October 2022.
- ^ a b Slate, Nico. (2019). Gandhi’s Search for the Perfect Diet: Eating with the World in Mind. University of Washington Press. pp. 89-90. ISBN 978-0295744957
- ^ a b Amey, Catherine. (2014). The Compassionate Contrarians: A History of Vegetarians in Aotearoa New Zealand. Rebel Press. pp. 22-25. ISBN 978-0-473-27440-5
- ^ "Deaths Jun 1938". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 27 November 2024.