Alfred Mansfield Mitchell (1853 – 18 February 1936) was an Irish clergyman and activist. He advocated for anti-vivisection, vegetarianism, pacifism, and against poverty. He was the longest serving vicar of St Michael's Anglican Church in Burtonwood.[1]
Biography
Career
Mitchell was born in Dublin. He was ordained in 1879 and became a priest the following year.[2] Mitchell obtained his B.A. from Trinity College in 1879 and M.A. in 1884.[3] He was a curate at Clonmel before moving to England, where he held curacies at Warrington, Kentish Town, and Clerkenwell.[2] Mitchell was appointed vicar at St Michael's Anglican Church in Burtonwood in 1891, a position he held for 45 years.[1][2] His parish magazine Excelsior was widely read.[2]
Mitchell was an alderman of Lancashire County Council, a member of Burtonwood Parish Council and chairman of the Warrington County Elementary Education Committee.[2][4] He was a pacifist and campaigned to help the poor.[4] Mitchell also served as president of the People's League of Medical Freedom.[5]
Mitchell was an anti-vivisectionist and opposed the use of animals in filmmaking.[2][6] He argued that filmmakers were cruel to animals and planned to get a Bill passed through Parliament which would stop trained animals appearing in films.[4] He was a member of the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection and a vice-president of the Warrington Anti-Vivisection Society.[7][8]
Vegetarianism
Mitchell was a vegetarian, non-smoker and teetotaller.[2][4] He was disappointed that there was a large amount of antagonism against vegetarianism in the Church.[9] He argued that meat dishes at Christmas festivals were non-Christian, stating that they are a "debasing and degrading orgie, a festival of blood, a festival of cruelty".[10] In 1907, he commented that "vegetarians or food reformers are the only consistent worshippers and the flesh-eater is convicted of inconsistency and falsehood".[11] Mitchell stated that meat-eaters who decorated churches for the harvest festival were making the festival a service of lies and questioned why they didn't also use "trophies of the butcher's art".[12] In 1910, he published the pamphlet "The Church and Food Reform".[13] He condemned such festivals as "uric-acid festivals" for meat-eaters.[14]
On 8 September 1887, Mitchell married Janet Elizabeth Louisa, the daughter of the solicitor William Hammond of London, at Stratford-sub-Castle, Salisbury.[21]
Mitchell died in Burtonwood on 18 February 1936, aged 83.[2] He was buried at Burtonwood Cemetery.[1][22]
