Dr FREY ELLIS, 1918 – 1978

F R Ellis, MD, FRCPath qualified from King’s College Hospital in 1943, and after a resident appointment in Haslemere, served with the Royal Army Medical Corps in Italy. After the war, he had a long and distinguished medical career as a pathologist and haematologist in various hospitals in the South of England, finally for most of his career as consultant haematologist for the Kingston and Richmond area.

Frey Ellis became vegan and joined The Vegan Society in the 1950s. In 1961 he joined the Vegan Society committee; in 1964 he became President of the Society, and continued as such until his death in 1978.

Dr Ellis’s contribution to science was from the nutritional viewpoint. He conducted much research on vegan subjects either by himself in person or through research students working under his direction. His studies established beyond reasonable doubt that a vegan diet could be as healthy for human babies, children and adults as any other, provided it included a reliable source of vitamin B12, the importance of which Frey always stressed.

Frey Ellis wrote many articles in The Vegan, in which he was equally as comfortable writing on the ethics of compassion and his love for animals as he was writing on scientific matters.

He was on the editorial board of two nutritional journals, and co-editor of one of them. He was also a scientific advisor to the RSPCA, the Humane Research Trust and the Lawson Tate Medical and Scientific Research Trust.

For many years after his death, he was commemorated by an Annual Frey Ellis Memorial Lecture, on aspects of plant-based nutrition, by leading experts in human nutrition