Frederic Richard Lees

Frederic Richard Lees (15 March 1815 – 29 May 1897) was an English temperance and vegetarianism advocate and writer.

Life and career
Frederic Richard Lees was born in Meanwood, near Leeds.

Lees signed the antispirits pledge in 1832 and became teetotaller in 1835. He worked as a temperance activist and authored books on the subject. In 1837, he became the Secretary for the British Association for the Promotion of Temperance (British Temperance League) and edited its journal from 1840 to 1844. Lees also edited Truth-Seeker from 1844 to 1850, the Teetotal Topic, in 1847, and the Temperance Spectator, in 1859. He was a founding member of the United Kingdom Alliance in 1863.

Lees was a vegetarian and occasionally lectured on vegetarianism. In 1857, he won a Vegetarian Society essay competition which was republished in 1884. He became an associate member of the Society in 1874.

Lees obtained an honorary doctorate from University of Giessen for his writings against Owenism.

Lees died on 29 May 1897, in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Personal life
Lees married Mary Jowett in 1838 and they had two children; she died in 1870. In 1878, he married Sarah Barnesley (née Brooks), who died in 1889.

Selected publications

 * Owenism Dissected (1838)
 * An Argument on Behalf of the Primitive Diet of Man (1857)
 * Essays Physiological and Critical on the Principles of Temperance (1857)
 * National Temperance Testimonial of One Thousand Guineas to Dr. Frederic Richard Lees (1860)
 * An Inquiry into the Reasons and Results of the Prescription of Intoxicating Liquors in the Practice of Medicine (1866)
 * Textbook of Temperance (1869)
 * The Temperance Bible-commentary: Giving at One View, Version, Criticism, and Exposition, in Regard to All Passages of Holy Writ Bearing on 'wine' and 'strong Drink', Or Illustrating the Principles of the Temperance Reformation (1870)
 * The Science Temperance Text-Book (1884)
 * The Temperance Movement and its Workers: A Record of Social, Moral, Religious, and Political Progress (with Peter Turner Winskill, 1891)