John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor (1825-1910), a British Latinist, Hellenist, and activist, was born in British Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Educated in England at Shrewsbury School and St John’s College, Cambridge, he spent his professional life at the University of Cambridge as a librarian and later as a professor of Latin. Mayor was renowned for his works on Greek and Latin literature, including editions of Juvenal’s Satires and Cicero’s Second Philippic. He also became the president of the Vegetarian Society of the United Kingdom and authored works promoting vegetarianism.
Following the 1904 fire at the National University Library of Turin, Mayor donated approximately 200 books, primarily ancient texts on religious topics and classical literature, as well as some of his own works promoting simple living and the relationship between nature and humanity. Notable among the donated works were treatises on vegetarianism and speeches from the Vegetarian Society’s lectures.