Eustace Miles
{{Short description|English real tennis player, author and restaurateur}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox sportsperson
| name = Eustace Miles
| image = Eustace Miles.JPG
| caption = Miles in 1908
| full_name = Eustace Hamilton Miles
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1868|9|22|df=yes}}
| birth_place = Hampstead, England
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1948|12|20|1868|9|22|df=yes}}
| death_place = England
| alma_mater = {{Plainlist|
}}
| spouse = {{Marriage|Dorothy Beatrice Harriet Killick|1906}}
| country = Great Britain
| sport = {{ubl|Real tennis|Racquets|Squash}}
| olympics = 1908 Summer Olympics
| show-medals = yes
| medaltemplates = {{Medal|Silver|1908 London|Jeu de paume – Singles}}
}}
Eustace Hamilton Miles (22 September 1868 – 20 December 1948) was an English real tennis player, author and restaurateur. He competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and was a vegetarian who disliked that label and made his name selling health products and health advice to Edwardian Britons.{{cite web|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/17931 |title=Eustace Miles |work=Olympedia |access-date=30 March 2021}}{{cite Sports-Reference}}
Early life and education
Miles was the grandson of Sir William Miles, 1st Baronet by his son Captain William Henry Miles, J.P. (1830–1888) and Mary Frances Miles, née Charleton. He was born at Hampstead and was educated at Eastbourne College, Marlborough College and King's College, Cambridge.{{acad|id=FML887EH|name=Miles, Eustace Hamilton}} In 1906, Miles married Dorothy Beatrice Harriet Killick (nicknamed Hallie).[http://westhampsteadlife.com/2014/06/25/eustace-miles-west-hampsteads-tennis-world-champion-and-food-fanatic/13336 West Hampstead’s tennis world champion (and food fanatic)]. West Hampstead Life.
Career
In 1908, he won the Olympic silver medal at the age of 39, after losing the final to Jay Gould II, the bronze medal was won by The Hon Neville Bulwer-Lytton, later 3rd Earl of Lytton. Miles had, in fact, coached the much younger Gould during his stay in America from 1900 to 1902 when he became the first non-American winner of the US Championship in 1900. He won further the amateur racquets championship of the world in singles in 1906 and in doubles in 1902, 1904, 1905 and 1906; and of England in doubles as well as becoming amateur squash racquets champion of America in 1900. He was amateur real tennis champion of England in 1898–1903, 1905, 1906, 1909 and 1911 and amateur real tennis champion of the world from 1898 to 1903 and 1905.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
Miles was a prolific author, including collaborations with lifelong friend E. F. Benson with whom he may have had a college romance,Masters, Brian "The Life Of E.F. Benson", Chatto & Windus, 1992, pp75-76 on diverse subjects including health (e.g. "Fitness for Play and Work" 1912), athletics ("An Alphabet of Athletics"), diet ("The Failures of Vegetarianism" 1902), ancient history ("A History of Rome up to 500 AD, with Essays, Maps and Aids to Memory" 1901) and Classics ("Comparative Syntax of Greek and Latin"). His wife, also an author, and him both engaged in philanthropic works including providing free food and clothing to the poor of London, available during winter months near Cleopatra's Needle, a charitable exercise supported strongly by Queen Alexandra.{{Citation needed|date=June 2024}}
File:A Boy's Control and Self Expression by Eustace Miles.jpg
Health and diet
Miles authored many books on dieting and vegetarianism. Miles's comprehensive regimen combined abstention from alcohol with games, daily practice of gymnastics, personal cleanliness, breathing exercises, and meditation.Zweiniger-Bargielowska, Ina. (2010). Managing the Body: Beauty, Health, and Fitness in Britain 1880-1939. Oxford University Press. p. 34. {{ISBN|978-0199280520}} Miles promoted the concept of "mental hygiene".{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0003tnd|title=The Essay - Healthy eating Edwardian-style - BBC Sounds|website=www.bbc.co.uk|language=en-GB|access-date=6 April 2019}}
Miles was known for promoting different vegetable diets. He became a vegetarian but refused to be identified under that label as he believed the practice of vegetarianism had many faults, he expounded on these ideas in his book The Failures of Vegetarianism. His diet emphasized grains, legumes and meat substitutes which he called "Simpler Food".Whorton, James C. (2016 edition). Crusaders for Fitness: The History of American Health Reformers. Princeton University Press. pp. 260-262. {{ISBN|978-0691641898}} He published a monthly magazine, Healthward Ho!
Miles advertised and experimented with different diets. He originally embraced a uric acid-free diet but found it too restricting. He later criticized this diet in a booklet The Uric Acid Fetish (1915). Miles also experimented with Edward H. Dewey's "No Breakfast Plan" but abandoned it in favour of his own "No Lunch Plan".
Miles drew publicity for his article on how to live on a diet of two plasmon biscuits and one lentil a day.Addyman, Mary; Wood, Laura; Yiannitsaros, Christopher. (2017). Food, Drink, and the Written Word in Britain, 1820–1945. Routledge. p. 147. {{ISBN|978-1848936102}} In 1904, it was humorously reported in Punch that during the semi-final of a tennis competition, Miles was surrounded by an angry mob who compelled him to eat a meat chop.[https://madameulalie.org/punch/The_Danger_of_Being_in_the_Public_Eye.html "The Danger of Being in the Public Eye"]. Punch, 27 July 1904.
Miles has also been described as an advocate of lacto vegetarianism.Tibbles, William. (1914). [https://archive.org/stream/dieteticsorfoodi00tibb#page/243/mode/2up/ Dietetics: Or Food in Health and Disease]. Lea & Febiger. p. 243 His ideas about dieting were criticized by medical health experts as impractical.Anonymous. (1920). [https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=iau.31858044865693;view=1up;seq=612 Selfhealth as a Habit]. New York Medical Journal 112: 602. Physician William Tibbles suggested that "it seems almost impossible for any but the wealthy and leisured classes to follow his teachings thoroughly."
Eustace Miles Restaurant
Miles was the owner of a vegetarian restaurant in Chandos Street, Charing Cross that was alleged to have served more than a thousand diners a day. He also owned health food shops in London and two other restaurants, in Carshalton and Chelsea.
The restaurant is mentioned in the 1914 Gourmet Guide to London by Nathaniel Newnham-Davis{{Cite web |last=Today |first=Joss Bassett / History |date=2016-08-03 |title=The Food Critic Who Reviewed Victorian London’s Vegetarian Offerings |url=https://time.com/4437418/the-food-critic-who-reviewed-victorian-londons-vegetarian-offerings/ |access-date=2025-05-18 |website=TIME |language=en}} and briefly mentioned in E. M. Forster's Howards End (1910).[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3612486/Notebook.html "Even Edwardians suffered from healthy living"]. The Telegraph. Although he expanded his business and his restaurant prospered during WWI, interest in vegetarianism declined during that time. Miles later went bankrupt and sold his properties. When he died he left only £175.
Publications
- [https://archive.org/details/b28071281 Better Food for Boys] (1901)
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008683634 The Game of Squash] (1901)
- [http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924029039034 How to Remember: Without Memory Systems or with Them] (Frederick Warne & Co., 1901)
- [https://archive.org/details/b28073769 Avenues to Health] (1902)
- [https://archive.org/details/cu31924083762140 The Failures of Vegetarianism] (1902)
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008901154 Daily Training] (1903) [with Edward Frederic Benson]
- [https://archive.org/details/b28071190 Muscle, Brain, and Diet: A Plea for Simpler Foods] (1903)
- [https://archive.org/details/racquetstennissq00mile Racquets, Tennis, and Squash] (1903)
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008678791 A Boy's Control and Self-Expression] (1904)
- An Alphabet of Athletics (1904)
- [https://archive.org/details/b21529127 Breathing for Health, Athletics, and Brain-Work] (1904)
- [https://archive.org/details/b21697073 Cassell's Physical Educator] (1904)
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010882576 Diversions Day By Day] [with Edward Frederic Benson] (1905)
- [http://archive.org/details/howtoprepareessa00mileuoft How to Prepare Essays, Lectures, Articles, Books, Speeches and Letters, with Hints on Writing for the Press] (London: Rivingtons, 1905)
- [https://archive.org/details/b28071244 What Foods Feed Us] (1905)
- [https://archive.org/details/b21538013 The New Cookery of Unproprietary Foods] (1906)
- Life After Life: The Theory of Reincarnation (1907)
- [https://archive.org/details/b28055056 The Eustace Miles System of Physical Culture With Hints as to Diet] (1907)
- [https://archive.org/details/b28054544 The Training of the Body] (1908)
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/100114345 The Power of Concentration: How to Acquire It] (1909)
- Fitness for Play and Work (1912)
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/011827346 Prevention and Cure] (1912)
- The Uric Acid Fetish (1915) [with C. H. Collings]
- Self-Health as a Habit (1919)
- [https://gutenberg.org/ebooks/72765 Keep Happy] (1920)
References
{{Reflist}}
Further reading
- Hallie Eustace Miles. (1930). Untold Tales of War-Time London: A Personal Diary. Cecil Palmer.
External links
- {{databaseOlympics|MILESEUS01|Eustace Miles|archive=20070205231312}}
- {{Olympics.com|eustace-hamilton-miles}}
- {{Olympedia}}
- [http://www.ilnpictures.co.uk/ProductDetails.asp?ProductDetailID=76869 Charity]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miles, Eustace}}
Category:English real tennis players
Category:English restaurateurs
Category:English vegetarianism activists
Category:Jeu de paume players at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Category:Medalists at the 1908 Summer Olympics
Category:Olympic real tennis players for Great Britain