Hallie Eustace Miles

Early and personal life

Beatrice Dorothy Harriet Killick was born on 12 January 1855 in Devizes.^[6][7] Her father was Rev. Richard Henry Killick.^[4]

In March 1906, she married Eustace Miles at St Clement Danes, London.^[4][8] The church had previously been associated with her father, who served as its vicar during the 1860s. After her father's death in 1903, Killick experienced depression. She later wrote that Expression and Depression, a book by Miles, helped in her recovery and led her to write about her own experiences. After finding Miles's address, she contacted him. Their correspondence developed into a relationship, and Killick adopted his dietary ideas, including vegetarianism, before their marriage.^[4]

Career

Eustace Miles planned a "Simpler Food Restaurant" that would sell inexpensive meat-free meals. In 1906, after the couple's marriage, they opened the Eustace Miles Restaurant on Chandos Street, Charing Cross. It served meat-free meals for athletes, students, writers, workers, and professionals. Its customers also included suffragettes of the Women's Social and Political Union and Sylvia Pankhurst.^[9][10][11]

The restaurant served more than 1,000 meals a day. The American food writer James Beard described it as the "only quality vegetarian restaurant in London".^[9] For the next thirty years, the couple ran the restaurant, health food stores, and a line of protein and breakfast foods.^[9]

Writing

Miles's books included Life's Orchestra, Life's Colours, The Ideal Home and Its Problems, The Cry of the Animals to their Human Friends, Story of the Coronation and Passing of King Edward VII, The Pilgrimage of the Cross, Economy in Wartime; Or, Health Without Meat, The Cry of the Desolate, Our Kitchen, and The New Road.^[12][13]

During World War I, Miles kept a diary about her work organising concerts in hospitals and recruitment centres, the effect of the war on daily life, and the presence of refugees in London. It was published in 1930 as Untold Tales of War-time London: A Personal Diary.^[14] The diary has been cited in studies of wartime Britain and women's writing during the First World War.^[15][16][17]

In 1915, Miles published a vegetarian cookbook with 160 recipes, Economy in Wartime; Or, Health Without Meat, later retitled Health Without Meat.^[18] The book drew on her husband's dietetic principles and presented vegetarian meals as economical during wartime meat shortages. Miles addressed women as members of an "Army in the Kitchen" and connected low-meat and meat-free cookery with economy, hygiene, and health. The Mileses also took part in food education campaigns and gave cookery demonstrations. In the 1920s, the book was adapted for peacetime conditions, including unemployment, and promoted vegetarian dishes as cheaper alternatives to meat-based meals. Health Without Meat was praised by Health and Strength for the couple's work in food reform.^[19] A 14th edition was published in 1931.^[18]

Miles wrote for newspapers including the Daily Mirror and Daily Express.^[20]

Social reform

Miles supported animal rights, vegetarianism, and feminism. The Humanitarian League held meetings at the Eustace Miles Restaurant.^[9] With her husband, she distributed free food and clothing to poor people near Cleopatra's Needle, with support from Queen Alexandra.^[21][22] She also promoted food reform through recipes that combined simple vegetarian dishes, such as lentil salad and scrambled eggs on toast, with commercial protein supplements including Emprote.^[23]

Death

Miles died at her home in York Mansions, London, on 25 November 1947.^[24]