--- title: "History of The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd.: The 1969 Merger - IVU - International Vegetarian Union" description: "History of The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd.: The 1969 Merger: The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd. was created by a merger of The Vegetarian Society (1847-1969) and the London Vegetarian Society (1888-1969), and some smaller organisations, in 1969." url: "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2741-history-societies-vsuk.html" date: "2026-11-06T00:13:00+00:00" language: "en-GB" --- # History of The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd.: The 1969 Merger The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd. was created by a merger of The Vegetarian Society (1847-1969) and the London Vegetarian Society (1888-1969), and some smaller organisations, in 1969. In 1888 the London group had broken away from the original society based in Manchester, and the newly merged societies were also based in Manchester, initially with a London office which closed in the 1980s, and is still generally known as 'The Vegetarian Society'. VSUK therefore traces its origins back to 1847 and considers itself to have been in continuous operation since that time, despite the name change. In 1997 the Society celebrated its 150th anniversary and the following articles were all written at that time: - [1847-1997 Vegetariansm - A Cause for Celebration - 150 years of the Vegetarian Society UK](http://www.europeanvegetarian.org/evu/english/news/news972/celebrations.html) (EVU News 1997) - ***Español -*** *[1847-1997 Vegetarianismo: Un motivo de celebración ](http://www.europeanvegetarian.org/evu/spanish/news/news972/celebrations.html)* - ***Italiano -*** *[1847-1997 Vegetarianismo - Un motivo per festeggiare](http://www.europeanvegetarian.org/evu/italian/news/news972/celebrations.html)* - [150 Years of Vegetarianism](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/3575-congress-euro97-150-years.html) (European Congress 1997) - [The Vegetarian Society of the UK: 150 Years in the Forefront of Vegetarian Campaigning ](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/5537-news-3-98-vegsocuk.html)(IVU News 1998) - ***Español*** *- [La Sociedad Vegetariana del Reino Unido: 150 Años encabezando el Movimiento Vegetariano](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/5906-spanish-news-3-98-vegsocuk.html)* - [The History of Vegetarianism in the UK](http://www.vegsoc.org/members/history/150hist.html) (VSUK) The following articles are all on the VSUK website, originating from various publications: - [Through the Ages](http://www.vegsoc.org/news/2000/21cv/ages.html) - general history of vegetarianism - [Society History](http://www.vegsoc.org/news/2000/21cv/history.html) - the origins of The Vegetarian Society - [Read all about it](http://www.vegsoc.org/news/2000/21cv/read.html) - the story of *The Vegetarian* magazine - [The Development of the Movement ](http://www.vegsoc.org/info/developm.html)- Information Sheet - [Generating Vegetarians](http://www.vegsoc.org/members/history/generate.html) - *a six generation veggie family* Some individual members of the Society (including the London Society): - [Isobel Wilson](http://www.vegsoc.org/members/history/isobel.html) MBE (1908-1994) - past President and founder of the Cookery School - [Dr. Gordon Latto](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/4310-members-council-gordon-latto.html) (1911-1998) former President - [John le Grice](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/4206-congress-wvc86-index.html) - former Deputy President - [Kathy Silk](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/4224-congress-wvc96-europeans.html) - former President - [Sir Paul (1942 - ) & Lady Linda (1941-1998) McCartney](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/4895-people-music-macca.html) Patrons - [Tina Fox](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/4388-members-council-tina-fox.html) - current Chief Executive (and Chair of IVU) - [Maxwell Lee](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/4354-members-council-maxwell-lee.html) - current President (and member of IVU Council) - [David Pye](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/4289-members-council-david-pye.html) - current trustee (and IVU Treasurer) More recent World Vegetarian Congresses hosted by the Society: - [1979 Loughborough, England](https://ivu.org/hv-congress-main-congress-wvc79-index.html) - [2002 Edinburgh, Scotland](https://ivu.org/hv-congress-2002-congress-2002-index.html) Other related articles: - History of Oxford Vegetarians (affiliated society founded 1967) - [Statistics - Vegetarianism in the UK](http://www.vegsoc.org/info/statveg.html) detailed stats from 1980 (link to VSUK) - [Marketing the Message: The Changing Face of Vegetarianism in the United Kingdom](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/3748-congress-thai99-texts-market.html) - talk by Tina Fox at the World Vegetarian Congress, Chiang Mai, Thailand, 1999 - [Philosophy of diet - or a philosophy of life?](https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/3304-congress-2002-texts-derek1.html) - talk by Derek Antrobus at the World Vegetarian Congress, Edinburgh, 2002 The Society today is at: [![](https://ivu.org/images/legacy/history/history/societies/pics/vsuk.jpg) The Vegetarian Society UK](http://www.vegsoc.org/) Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A note on this archive. The history section of this website is drawn from a body of legacy content originally compiled by John Davis, former manager of the International Vegetarian Union. It represents his curation of historical material, and in places includes passages written by him directly. Over the years, the IVU website has migrated between several different hosting servers. In the course of these migrations, a number of PDF files were unfortunately lost, and **some links to PDF documents may no longer function**. Where this is the case, we have chosen to leave the original link text in place, as it may itself carry information of historical value. - Hits: 1317 ## Schema ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://ivu.org/hv-societies-ivu-history-societies-united-kingdom.html?view=article&id=2741:history-societies-vsuk&catid=48","url":"https://ivu.org/hv-societies-ivu-history-societies-united-kingdom.html?view=article&id=2741:history-societies-vsuk&catid=48","name":"Vegetarian Society UK","inLanguage":"en","isPartOf":[{"@id":"https://ivu.org/history-of-ivu.html#archive"},{"@id":"https://ivu.org/hv-societies-ivu-history-societies-united-kingdom.html"}],"publisher":{"@id":"https://ivu.org/#organization"},"description":"The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd. was created by a merger of The Vegetarian Society (1847-1969) and the London Vegetarian Society (1888-1969), and some smaller organisations, in 1969."}]} ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://ivu.org" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "IVU", "item": "https://ivu.org/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Resources", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Interviews", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "History of the Vegetarian Societies", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "name": "history", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "name": "societies", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews.html" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "name": "History of The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd.: The 1969 Merger", "item": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2741-history-societies-vsuk.html" } ] } ``` ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Article", "mainEntityOfPage": { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://ivu.org/international-vegetarian-union/resources/interviews/2741-history-societies-vsuk.html" }, "headline": "History of The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd.: The 1969 Merger", "description": "History of The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd.: The 1969 Merger: The Vegetarian Society of the UK Ltd. was created by a merger of The Vegetarian Society (1847-1969) and the London Vegetarian Society (1888-1969), and some smaller organisations, in 1969.", "publisher": { "@type": "Organization", "name": "International Vegetarian Union", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://ivu.org/images/logos/logo-ivu-tranparent-background.png" } }, "author": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Alex Fernandes", "url": "https://ivu.org/international-council.html" }, "datePublished": "2026-10-16T00:00:16+00:00", "dateCreated": "2026-05-29T01:58:53+00:00", "dateModified": "2026-10-08T00:53:52+00:00" } ```