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Peace Society

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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 British pacifist organization that was active from 1816 until the 1930s.

Contents

History

The Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace was founded on 14 June 1816. It advocated a gradual, proportionate, and simultaneous disarmament of all nations and the principle of arbitration. The Society in London established Auxiliary Societies in various cities and towns in the United Kingdom: for instance at Doncaster and Leeds.

Lewis Appleton organized the International Arbitration and Peace Association (IAPA) in 1880. Unlike the Peace Society the IAPA accepted defensive war, was not restricted to Christians and claimed to be international. 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. During the 1880s the Peace Society stagnated. Its Ladies' Peace Association was much more dynamic, and claimed 9,217 members by the summer of 1885, of which 4,000 belonged to Peckover's Wisbech group.

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, William Evans Darby. His successor, Revd. Herbert Dunnico, led the society's unsuccessful campaign for peace negotiations.

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

Chairmen/Presidents

  • Robert Marsden - Evangelical stockbroker; Chairman, 1817-1836
  • Joseph Pease - Quaker politician; President, 1860–1872

    • Secretaries

  • Evan Rees ?–1821
  • Nun Morgan Harry - ?–1842
  • John Jefferson - Congregational pastor; 1842–1848
  • Henry Richard - Congregational pastor and politician; 1848–1885
  • W. Evans Darby - 1885–1915
  • Herbert Dunnico - 1915–?

    • Treasurers

  • John Scott - Evangelical/Calvinist banker; Secretary, 1817-1831

    • Founding members

  • William Allen- Quaker philanthropist
  • Rev. Thomas Harper - (Obituary in The Herald of Peace 1831, p. 528)
  • Joseph Pease; Uncle of the Joseph Pease above
  • John Scott - Banker (author of the Society's second tract: 'War Inconsistent with the Doctrine and Example of Christ', originally published 1796)

    • Non-founding members

  • John Bowring - Bentham's editor, governor of Hong Kong
  • John Bright - Quaker politician
  • Richard Cobden, MP
  • Hugh Stowell Brown - leader of Liverpool branch
  • Robert Charleton - Quaker pin manufacturer and Peace Envoy.
  • Charles Gilpin - Quaker publisher and later MP
  • Joseph Sturge - Quaker abolitionist; founded the Birmingham Auxiliary
  • Sir Wilfrid Lawson Radical MP

    • Records of the Peace Society

  • International Peace Society Records, 1817-1948 at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania. Note: this is a large file of pamphlets and other printed publications of the Society. There is an historical introduction to the collection but no business archives are in the collection.
  • Other records of the Peace Society are said to be in the possession of Mr CP Dunnico

    • 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.

    References

    Peace Society Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA