Arnold Hills

Arnold Frank Hills (12 March 1857 – 7 March 1927) was an English businessman, sportsman, philanthropist, and activist. He played once for the England national football team in 1879. Hills was an advocate of temperance and vegetarianism, and served as president of the London Vegetarian Society and Vegetarian Federal Union.

Biography

Early life Hills was born in Denmark Hill, Surrey, on 12 March 1857, the son of Frank Clarke Hills, a manufacturing chemist, and Ann Ellen Hills ().

Sports career Hills was a British mile champion, winning the 1878 AAC Championships title, and was the three-mile champion in 1879.

In his youth, he played football and cricket for Harrow School, where he captained the first XI. After leaving Harrow, he attended University College, Oxford, where he earned a B.A. in 1880 and two football blues. He played as a forward for Oxford University when the team finished runners-up to Wanderers in the 1877 FA Cup Final.

After leaving Oxford, Hills continued to play as an amateur for Old Harrovians and received a Corinthian's Cap while with the club. He played once for England, against Scotland on 5 April 1879 at the Kennington Oval, in a 5–4 England win.

Business career Hills became a director of the Thames Iron Works in 1880, a shipbuilding business in London that had existed since 1846. He lived for five years (1860-1885) among his workers in a small house in East India Dock Road in Canning Town and organised recreational centres for them. He also caused resentment during a strike over pay and working conditions by employing strikebreakers.

In the summer of 1895, Hills and Dave Taylor helped found Thames Ironworks F.C., which later became West Ham United. The following year, 1896, he became the Managing Director of the yard, and at some point Chairman.

Hills wanted the local community to have its own football team and financially supported the club until April 1900. After disagreements with West Ham's board over professionalism, he ended his formal ties with the club and the Thames Ironworks.

Hills proposed that West Ham be formed as a limited company and became its major shareholder. He encouraged business associates, family members, and his workers to invest, promising to buy one share for every share sold to the public. He rented the Memorial Grounds to the club on favourable terms. Hills told the new directors that he would not interfere in the running of the club and, despite being its largest single shareholder, did not attend annual general meetings, ask to address meetings, or present demands or suggestions.

Vegetarianism Hills was the first president of the London Vegetarian Society, founded in 1888, and served on its executive committee with the young Mahatma Gandhi. He was also the first president of the Vegetarian Cycling and Athletic Club and president of the London Vegetarian Rambling Club. He founded The Vegetarian, an independent periodical, and the Vegetarian Federal Union in 1889, of which he was also president. He founded the Oriolet Fruitarian Hospital at Loughton, under the medical direction of Josiah Oldfield.

In an article titled "Milk and Eggs", Hills described milk, cream, butter, cheese, and eggs as "props of a transition period" rather than part of the vegetarian ideal. He argued that milk and eggs were foods naturally intended for young animals and human infants, and that adults should move beyond them. He criticised the use of milk, cream, butter, and especially cheese on physiological grounds, claiming that cheese was made indigestible by fermentation. Hills also rejected eggs as less digestible when cooked, and said that reliance on milk and eggs was justified only by social convenience. He urged vegetarian "experimentalists" to replace them with fruit, nuts, and grains.

In 1892, Hills authored Vital Food, in which he argued for a plant-based raw food diet.Albala, Ken. (2015). The SAGE Encyclopedia of Food Issues, Volume 1. Sage Publications p. 1176.

Later life and death The failing fortunes of the ironworks and Hills's involvement in developing a new car engine pushed the club into the background, and he became disabled due to arthritis. He died at Hammerfield, Penshurst, Kent, in 1927, aged 69, and was buried at St Luke's Church at Chiddingstone Causeway in Penshurst. His shareholding in West Ham, 1,100 of 4,000 shares, passed to his family; 1,142 shares remained unsold until 1961.

Legacy Charles W. Forward's 1898 history of vegetarianism, Fifty Years of Food Reform, was dedicated to Hills.Forward, Charles W. (1898). Fifty Years of Food Reform: A History of the Vegetarian Movement in England. London: The Ideal Publishing Union.

In 2014, as part of its preparations for moving to the Olympic Stadium, West Ham announced that one of its corporate entertainment areas would be a private dining club named the Arnold Hills suite.

Publications Vital Food (1892) Vegetarian Essays (1897) Essays on Vegetarianism (1910)

References

Arnold Hills

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