| Bertrand P. Allinson | |
| Birth Name: | Bertrand Peter Allinson |
| Birth Date: | 12 August 1891 |
| Birth Place: | Marylebone, London, England[1] |
| Death Place: | Marylebone, London, England |
| Occupation: | Physician, naturopath, writer, activist |
| Father: | Thomas Allinson |
| Relatives: | Adrian Allinson (brother) |
Bertrand Peter Allinson (12 August 1891 – 1 April 1975) was an English physician, naturopath and writer. He was also an anti-vaccination, anti-vivisection and vegetarianism activist.
Allinson was the son of Thomas Allinson and brother of Adrian Allinson.[2] [3] He was raised as a vegetarian and studied medicine. Allinson qualified MRCS and LRCP in 1914 from the University College Hospital.[4] He was a Captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps (1916–1920).[4] Allinson was a physician at the British Hospital for Mental and Nervous Diseases.[2]
Allinson was an anti-vaccinationist and anti-vivisectionist. He opposed the use of pharmaceutical drugs which he believed hindered the "automatic cleansing process".[2] Allinson wrote articles supportive of naturopathy. He was vice-president of the National Anti-Vaccination League.[2]
Allinson was a physician at the Nature Cure Clinic, a naturopathic hospital which promoted vegetarianism and animal welfare causes such as anti-vivisection.[5] The Nature Cure Clinic opened in 1928 at an apartment in Baker Street.[6] In 1940, the out-patient building was destroyed by bombing and the Clinic moved to Allinson's house in Dorset Square. After the war, the clinic moved to Oldbury Place.[6]
Allinson was treasurer of the London and Provincial Anti-Vivisection Society.[7] His daughter Sonya Madeleine Allinson was an artist.[8]
Allinson stated that fruit juice fasting, a strict vegetarian diet and naturopathic practices such as hydrotherapy and osteopathy could be used to prevent and cure many diseases including cancer, hypertension and rheumatism.[7] [9] [10] [11] He opposed the consumption of alcohol, coffee, meat, processed sugar, tea, white bread and promoted a vegetarian diet of raw fruit, nuts, salads, dairy products and whole grains.[11] He described alcohol, coffee and tea as injurious to the functions of the body.[12] Allinson recommended persons between the ages of 25 and 55 to take two meals per day and after that age one meal per day in the afternoon.[12] Allinson was vice-president of East Surrey Vegetarian Society.[13]
Allinson was vice-president of the International Vegetarian Union (1958–1963) and President of the London Vegetarian Society (1922–1962).[14] [15]