Peace Society

The Peace Society, International Peace Society or London Peace Society originally known as the Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace, was a pioneering British pacifist organization that was active from 1816 until the 1930s.

History

Foundation

The Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace was founded after a meeting in Plough Court, Lombard Street in the City of London on 14 June 1816. Following the Battle of Waterloo the previous year and the decades of European conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte, it advocated a gradual, proportionate, and simultaneous disarmament of all nations and the principle of arbitration.[1] Many of the founders came together under the banner of Christian abolitionism. The Society in London established Auxiliary Societies in various cities and towns in the United Kingdom; for instance at Doncaster and Leeds,[2] Swansea and Neath, Newcastle, Birmingham and Liverpool, to name but a few.

Late 19th century

Lewis Appleton organized the International Arbitration and Peace Association (IAPA) in 1880.[3] Unlike the Peace Society the IAPA accepted defensive war, was not restricted to Christians and claimed to be international.[4] It also allowed women on the executive committee.

In the spring of 1882 E. M. Southey, the main founder of the Ladies Peace Association, persuaded her group to disaffiliate from the Peace Society and join the IAPA.The Quaker Priscilla Hannah Peckover played a central role in organizing a new ladies auxiliary of the Peace Society that was launched on 12 July 1882.[5] During the 1880s the Peace Society stagnated. Its Ladies' Peace Association was more dynamic, and claimed 9,217 members by the summer of 1885, of which 4,000 belonged to Peckover's Wisbech group.[6]

Early 20th century

The Society's failure to condemn the outbreak of World War I in 1914 resulted in internal divisions and led to the resignation of its leader, Rev. William Evans Darby. His successor, Rev. Herbert Dunnico, led the society's unsuccessful campaign for peace negotiations.[1]

In 1930 the Peace Society merged with the International Christian Peace Fellowship and was renamed the International Peace Society. At some time thereafter it became defunct. It published a monthly journal, The Herald of Peace, founded in 1819.[7][8]

Members

Founder members

As listed in The Origins of War Prevention: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1730–1854,[9] the founding dozen were:

Other notable members

Chairmen/Presidents

Secretaries
  • Evan Rees - Secretary, ?–1821[12]
  • Rev. Nun Morgan Harry - Secretary, ?–1830[13] (see Welsh Wikipedia)
  • Rev. John Jefferson - Congregational pastor; Secretary, 1831–1848
  • Rev. Henry Richard - Congregational pastor and politician; Secretary, 1848–1885[14]
  • Rev. William Evans Darby - Secretary, 1885–1915
  • Rev. Sir Herbert Dunnico – Secretary, 1915–?[15]

Treasurers
  • John Clarkson - Treasurer, 1816–1819
  • John Scott - Treasurer, 1820–1831
  • Samuel Gurney - Treasurer, 1832–?

Records of the Peace Society

There are also records at the Savings Bank Museum http://www.savingsbanksmuseum.co.uk/collection.html as the founder of the first parish savings bank Henry Duncan wrote on this subject.

See also

References
    1. Peter Barberis, John McHugh, Mike Tyldesley, Encyclopedia of British and Irish Political Organizations, Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000, p.345.
    2. Researching Yorkshire Quaker History (2007) p.95, Item 1.5.6: Doncaster Auxiliary Peace Society p.97 1.5.13: Leeds Peace Association
    3. Ceadel 2000, p. 112.
    4. Ceadel 2000, p. 113.
    5. Ceadel 2000, p. 114.
    6. Ceadel 2000, p. 127.
    7. Herald of Peace, Volume 8 (1831) available online at Googlebooks.
    8. Cornell University Library has produced a facsimile of The Herald of Peace 1824 (April, May, June) issues (pages on Amazon.com) ISBN 978-1-4297-2848-5
    9. Ceadel, Martin (1996). The Origins of War Prevention : The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1730–1854 (Reprint. ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press. p. 521. ISBN 9780198226741.
    10. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Pease, Edward" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 44. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
    11. Spartacus article on Joseph Pease Archived 2007-08-17 at the Wayback Machine
    12. The Memoirs of Evan Rees, the first Secretary, were published in 1853. They are available online at GoogleBooks.
    13. details of four published texts by Rev Nun Morgan Harry are to be found in the British Library Integrated Catalogue.
    14. Harry, Jefferson and Richard are all buried at Abney Park Cemetery.
    15. "International Peace Society Collected Records (CDG-B Great Britain), Swarthmore College Peace Collection".
    16. Researching Yorkshire Quaker History (2007)p.95, Item 1.5.6.

     This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Wood, James, ed. (1907). "Peace Society". The Nuttall Encyclopædia. London and New York: Frederick Warne.

    Further reading
    • Peter Brock, Pacifism in Europe to 1914 (Princeton University Press, 1972)
    • Martin Ceadel, Pacifism in Britain, 1914-1945: The Defining of a Faith (Oxford University Press, 1980) ISBN 978-0-19-821882-1
    • Martin Ceadel, The Origins of War Prevention: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1730-1854 (Oxford University Press, 1996) ISBN 978-0-19-822674-1
    • Martin Ceadel, Semi-Detached Idealists: The British Peace Movement and International Relations, 1854–1945 (Oxford University Press, 2000) ISBN 978-0-19-924117-0
    • Stephen Conway, The Politicization of the Nineteenth-Century Peace Society (Historical Research, vol. 66, issue 161), October 1993
    • Paul Laity, The British Peace Movement, 1870-1914 (Cambridge University Press, 2001) ISBN 0-19-924835-4, some pages available at GoogleBooks – Chapter 1 concerns the founding of the British Peace Society in 1816
    • The Times, Wednesday, 23 May 1866; p. 12; Issue 25505; col C: THE PEACE SOCIETY.-The 50th anniversary
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