Dugald Patterson McDougall Semple (7 February 1884 – 19 January 1964) was a Scottish advocate of simple living and animal welfare, naturalist, prolific author, and fruitarian.

[3] Dugald Semple, vegan and "Scottish Apostle of the simple life,"[4] farmed at Davie's o'the Mill near Beith in North Ayrshire from the 1930s until around 1950, when it was a smallholding.

[citation needed] Curiously for a vegetarian he appears in a photograph of Davie's o'the Mill to be keeping chickens.

[citation needed] In 1963, Dugald detailed his dietary journey: I began rather drastically over 50 years ago [~1910] by cutting out not only all meat or flesh foods, but milk, eggs, butter, tea and coffee.

[…] While I was in London (during World War I), I found it necessary to add some dairy products to my meals, but on returning to Scotland I gradually eliminated these again.

"[10] In his 1915 book, Joys of the Simple Life, he wrote an essay entitled "Alone with Nature", stating that "I left off eating flesh-meat and drinking tea ten years ago, and for over eight years have rarely used milk, eggs, salt, sugar, dairy butter, white bread, or condiments of any kind.

The Victoria Advocate newspaper of Texas reported that he lectured on his beliefs and way of life in the USA, Canada, and America.

[5] From the August 1910 issue of the Vegetarian Messenger: "Mr. Dugald Semple, the Scottish apostle of the Simple Life, is arranging lecturing tours for the coming winter.

He is prepared to give lectures for a modest fee, and we are sure that his services would be appreciated by vegetarian and allied societies.

"[12] The address appears to refer to his horse drawn caravan that can be seen in the photograph of Davie's o'the Mill.

The killing of human beings is akin to the killing of animals and so the exploiting of animal life leads to the selfish exploitation of human beings.Dugald quoted Robert Burns, appealing for a more widespread appreciation of the real values in life – more sunshine for the body, more love for the soul, peace for every living creature the world over.

[4] Morris Krok, born in Johannesburg, South Africa and whilst seeking solutions for his health problems was influenced by natural healing writers of the 20th century such as Dugald Semple, Vincent Priessnitz, Louis Kuhne, etc.

Civilian rationing began at the end of World War I, on 1 January 1918, with sugar, then meat, butter, and margarine.

The Government of the day consulted Dugald and a colleague to educate people concerning how to ration available produce and other food and to propose acceptable substitutes for meat, which had become familiar in their diets.