W. B. Shearn#Career

Shearn was born in the first quarter of 1872 in St. Giles, Middlesex.{{Cite web |title=Births Mar 1872 |url=https://www.freebmd.org.uk/cgi/information.pl?cite=GXxITImifhFnqhnn2tauzw&scan=1 |accessdate=29 October 2024 |work=FreeBMD |publisher=ONS}} He was christened on 11 February 1880 at Saint John the Evangelist, Charlotte Street, Camden.London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Board of Guardian Records, 1834-1906/Church of England Parish Registers, 1754-1906; Reference Number: p90/jne1/010.

Shearn's father Benjamin Shearn (1829–1913) was the owner of the first fruitarian restaurant in London, established in 1905.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0001769%2F19130328&page=5 |title=Death of Mr. B. Shearn|newspaper=The Guardian |date=March 28, 1913|page=5}} {{subscription required}} The restaurant was positioned above his fruit store at 231-234 Tottenham Court Road, that were both managed by Shearn.{{cite book |date= 1919|title=Catering Management: A Comprehensive Guide to the Successful Management of Hotel, Restaurant, Boarding House, Popular Café, Tea Rooms, and Every Other Branch of Catering, Including a Section on the Law and the Caterer |url=https://archive.org/details/cateringmanageme02lond/page/4/mode/2up |publisher=Waverly Book Company |page=4}}{{cite book |last=Wright |first=Laura |date=2022 |title=The Social Life of Words: A Historical Approach |url= |publisher=Wiley |page=189 |isbn=978-1119881056}} The ground floor was a florist and greengrocer and the two upper floors belonged to the restaurant. The restaurant served nutmeat. Alfred Perlès described it as "probably the best vegetarian restaurant in the world, with the emphasis on a fruitarian diet".{{cite book |last=Perlès |first=Alfred |author-link=Alfred Perlès |date=1946 |title=Round Trip |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W2YDAAAAMAAJ |publisher=D. Dobson |page=46}} Customers would pay two shillings to consume as much fruit and nuts that they could eat with a cup of coffee, cream and brown bread and butter. Shearn is credited with introducing grapefruit and "fruit lunch" to the British public.{{Cite web|date=1938|title=William B. Shearn|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1938/01/14/archives/william-b-shearn.html|website=The New York Times|language=en-GB|archive-date=|archive-url=}} Shearn's company advertised itself as the "World's Largest Fruitarian Stores".{{cite journal|year=1912|title=Shearn's: The World's Largest Fruitarian Stores|journal=The Herald of the Golden Age and British Health Review|url=http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/herald_of_the_golden_age/herald_of_the_golden_age_v15_n1_jan_1912.pdf|volume=15|issue=1|pages=}}

File:Shearn's fruitarian store.png

The restaurant contained a fruit saloon luncheon room that became a popular meeting place for members of the London Vegetarian Society.{{cite book |last=Kubisz |first= Marzena|date=2024 |chapter=The Stepping Stones of Another Order| title=Vegetarian Childhood in Early Victorian Discourse and Literary Representation |pages= 9–36|url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9781003400042-2/stepping-stones-another-order-marzena-kubisz |publisher=Routledge |doi= 10.4324/9781003400042-2|isbn=978-1003400042}} Shearn cooperated with The Children's Realm, a children's vegetarian magazine published by the London Vegetarian Society and Vegetarian Federal Union. Advertisements for his store were featured in the magazine. In 1907, Shearn offered a basket of fruit as an award for the best "Why I am a Vegetarian" children's essay. He organized parties for vegetarian children at his restaurant.

In 1909, Shearn donated 2000 oranges for poor children in London.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000560%2F19091218&page=4 |title=Warships's Message to Poor Children|newspaper=The Daily Mirror |date=December 18, 1909|page=4}} {{subscription required}} He was the first president of the British division of the Florists Telegraph Delivery Association.{{cite journal|year=1924|title=Banquet|journal=The Florist's Review|url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=coo.31924094275009&seq=242|volume=54|issue=6|pages=38}} Shearn was the editor of The Practical Fruiterer and Florist.{{Cite web|date=|title=Floristry in 1930s Britain|url=https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/floristry-in-1930s-britain/|website=Garden Museum|language=en-GB|archive-date=November 30, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231130083059/https://gardenmuseum.org.uk/floristry-in-1930s-britain/|url-status=live}}

Shearn visited the United States in 1933, where he received the title of "Ambassador of the Floral Kingdom of England".{{Cite news |date=1938-02-28 |title=Obituary |work=The Times of Northwest Indiana |page=[https://www.newspapers.com/image/310859350 8]}}

Shearn was a vegetarian but preferred the term fruitarian. His diet consisted of fruit, nuts and vegetables with dairy products and eggs.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000560%2F19140529&page=13 |title=A "Nutty" Wedding|newspaper=The Daily Mirror|date=May 29, 1914|page=13}} {{subscription required}}{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000433%2F19161205&page=2 |title=W. B. Shearn|newspaper=Dubin Evening Mail |date=December 5, 1916|page=2}} {{subscription required}}

Shearn married Ella Masterson at St Giles in the Fields in 1914. Their wedding was described as a "fruitarian wedding" as Ella wore cherries in her hair and the bridesmaids carried baskets of fruit.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000250%2F19140611&page=9 |title=The Bridal Cherry|newspaper=Sheffield Daily Telegraph |date=June 11, 1914|page=9}} {{subscription required}} The vegetarian meal served for over a hundred guests in a room decorated as a fruit and flower garden was a Brazil nut cutlet, mock chicken made from almonds and pine kernels, savoury nuts with cucumber and an egg gateau. Shearn stated that "I am such a firm believer in fruit as a means of keeping fit and well that I determined to have a fruitarian wedding in order to popularise this form of diet". Shearn and Ella had one son born in 1916.{{cite news|url=https://www.findmypast.co.uk/image-viewer?issue=BL%2F0000560%2F19160922&page=7 |title=The Cherry Bride's Baby|newspaper=The Daily Mirror |date=September 22, 1916|page=7}} {{subscription required}} He was Major John Benjamin Shearn.{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Old Eastbournian |url=https://www.eastbourne-college.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ESorg-OEmag2021-part-2.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240626063353/https://www.eastbourne-college.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/ESorg-OEmag2021-part-2.pdf |archive-date=June 26, 2024 |website=Eastbourne College |language=en-GB}}

Shearn died on 12 January 1938 in London.{{NoteTag|In the England & Wales Index of Wills and Administrations his place of death is listed at University College Hospital London,England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1861-1941. but The Observer obituary states that he died at his home.}} He was buried in St. Pancras Cemetery.{{cite news |date=January 16, 1938 |title=Death of Mr. W. B. Shearn |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-observer-mr-w-b-shearn-fruitarian-lu/9023307/ |newspaper=The Observer |page=10}} {{subscription required}} His fruit store was closed in 1961.

• The Practical Fruiterer and Florist (3 volumes, 1935)

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Category:1872 births

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Category:British florists