Sidney Hartnoll Beard

Sidney Hartnoll Beard (14 February 1862 – 20 October 1938) was an English vegetarian and fruitarian activist and writer. He re-established and served as president of the Order of the Golden Age, edited its journal, the Herald of the Golden Age (1896–1918), and advanced a Christian case for vegetarianism framed as a moral duty. Defining fruitarianism broadly to include cereals, seeds, nuts, fruits, and vegetables with dairy and eggs permitted, he treated fish as a transitional food for those leaving flesh-eating.

Operating from Ilfracombe and, from 1904, Barcombe Hall in Paignton, he organised lectures and public outreach, including a 1908 address with Josiah Oldfield at the Cambridge Guildhall. His publications were A Simple Guide to a Natural and Humane Diet (1898), Is Flesh-Eating Morally Defensible? (1898), A Comprehensive Guide-Book to Natural, Hygienic and Humane Diet (1902), and Our Real Relationship to God: The Lost Ideal of Christianity, by a Disciple of the Christ (1922).