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From the introduction of penny postage in 1840 all stamps and stamped stationery was produced, distributed and paid for by the Inland Revenue's Commissioners of Stamps and Taxes. In December 1876 the Inland Revenue suggested that it would be more appropriate for these costs to be met by the Post Office. At the beginning of the financial year in 1883 the Treasury instructed the Post Office to budget for the cost of stamp production. (POST 54/3).

Although the Post Office was now footing the bill, the Inland Revenue retained responsibility for manufacturing and distribution arrangements until 1 April 1914. On this date the Post Office took over all operations at the Inland Revenue's Somerset House stamp distribution centre for England and Wales. This involved the manufacture and distribution of all postage stamps, adhesive revenue and fee stamps, insurance stamps, postal orders, licenses, savings bank coupons, stamped postal stationery and telegraph forms for use in England and Wales. The transfer was authorised by the Treasury and "The Inland Revenue and Post Office (Powers and Duties) Order" was published by His Majesty's Stationery Office in March 1914. (POST 54/36).

The complicated relationship between the Inland Revenue, the Post Office, stamp designers, printers and printing hardware manufacturers is well represented in correspondence and memoranda relating to the introduction of King George V postage stamps, following his accession to the throne in 1910. (POST 54/48 - 49).

In 1962 yet another authority was to officially enter the sphere of postage stamp production. The existing relationship between the Post Office and the Council of Industrial Design was reviewed and the Postmaster General's new Stamp Advisory Committee was created consisting of Post Office and COID members. The role of the committee was clearly defined in a memorandum agreed by both parties. (POST 54/16). Today the SAC continues to influence the issue of postage stamps primarily through making recommendations to Royal Mail for commemorative stamp subjects and the selection of final designs. Other matters relating to the production and marketing of stamps and philatelic products are the responsibility of the Post Office Stamps and Philately Board (Stamps Advisory Committee).

There have been many staff associations, unions and representative bodies acting on behalf of the large numbers of staff employed by the Post Office in the modern era. Staff associations became increasingly prominent in the twentieth century. The Union of Post Office Workers (UPW) has had the largest membership and has been involved in all of the major wage negotiations since its inception in 1919. In 1980 it became the Union of Communication Workers (UCW) and in 1995 it merged with the National Communications Union to form the Communication Workers' Union (CWU). In 2005 it had a membership exceeding 250,000, comprising men and women working for the Post Office, British Telecom and other telephone and communication companies.

Post Office Staff Associations have their origins in the nineteenth century. The first efforts to improve staff conditions occurred in a number of meetings held in secret in and around St Martin's le Grand in the 1840s. A 'confederacy' was formed protesting against low pay and extra duties, with the support of some societies, clergymen and journalists. In the 1850s, similar small groups of Post Office employees joined with Lord's Day Societies and gained temporary successes in abandoning Sunday work. A small 'London Committee' concerned with the interests of letter carriers remained active through the 1860s and even met with Postmaster Generals a number of times, although the leaders of those agitating for increased pay were often sacked. The following decade saw the entry of telegraphists into Post Office employ and these were amongst the first to strike in 1871, and despite increased organisational endeavours, including William Booth's best efforts on behalf of the letter carriers, all efforts at creating a formal union failed. This was finally achieved with the creation of the Postal Telegraph Clerks Association in 1881, following a significant reorganisation of grades and negotiations with Postmaster General Henry Fawcett. In the final 20 years of the nineteenth century, there was a ferment of proto-union organisation across the Post Office workforce. This included the founding of the United Kingdom Postal Clerks Association in 1887 by provincial Post Office clerks; the Postmen's Union in 1889; and the Fawcett Association comprised of London sorters in 1890. Although the major pay claims were unsuccessful, the right to meet in public was secured over this period, the Fawcett Association gained their first full time representative officials in 1892 (albeit against its will) and the first large scale strike occurred in 1890. By the turn of the century, every Post Office grade had gained a representative association.

From this time until the outbreak of the First World War there were a number of large-scale public enquiries into the grievances of Post Office employees. Arguing the case of the lower grade workforce was the National Joint Committee (also known as the Amalgamated Postal Federation), which was the precursor in loosely uniting the disparate associations to the post-war amalgamation into the UPW. There were five main hearings that were respectively overseen by Tweedmouth (1895-7); Bradford (1904); Hobhouse (1907-8); Holt (1912-13); and Gibb (1914). In the first of these inquiries, the improvements gained were widely deemed to be inadequate and precipitated militancy, especially from many telegraphists. By the time of the Hobhouse inquiry, the union associates were recognised for the purposes of negotiation and a more thoroughgoing representation of Post Office employees was secured by the time of the Gibb inquiry. By this time the British labour movement had become heavily unionised and the period 1912-14 was one of acute industrial unrest on a broad scale and many concessions were gained during the Holt inquiry, including a more equitable system of 'differential' wages, where the level of pay varied according to region.

In 1919, the 44 representative associations of various workers employed by the Post Office were amalgamated into the UPW. These associations had represented the workers of four main grades: manipulative (those who handled mail and the like), supervisory, clerical and other. The following is a list of these associations:

There were 17 associations for manipulative grades: Postmen's Federation; Postal Telegraph Clerk's Association; Amalgamated Society of Telephone Employees; UK Postal Clerk's Association; Fawcett Association; Engineering and Stores Association; Irish Post Office Clerks; London Postal Porter's Association; Central London Postmen's Association; Women Sorters Association; Sorter-Tracers Association; Registry Assistants, Second Class Assistants; Tube Staff Association; Postal Bagmen's Association; PO Telegraph Mechanicians Society; Tracers Association; Messengers Association.

There were 14 associations for supervisory grades: Postal Telegraph and Telephone Controlling Association; London Postal Superintending Officers Association; Society of Post Office Engineers; Association of National Telephone Engineers; Central London Male Supervisors Association; London Association of Head Postmen; Society of PO Engineering Inspectors; Assistant Head Postmen's Association; Head Porters Association; Association of PO Superintendents; Second Class Assistant Inspectors and Telegraph Messengers; Telephone Exchange Managers Association; Association of Inspectors of Messengers; Association of Inspectors of Tracing.

There were 9 associations for clerical grades: Women Clerk's Association; General Association of Third Class Clerks; PO Engineering Clerks Association; London Postal Clerks Association; Association of Third Class Clerks (Surveyors); Representative Committee of Metropolitan Third Class Clerks; London Telephone Service Association; Engineer-in-Chief's Office Supplementary Clerk's Association; First and Second Class Clerks (Provinces) Association.

There were 4 associations for other grades: National Federation of Sub-Postmasters; PO Medical Officers Association; Head Postmasters Association; Established Sub-Postmasters Association.

In addition to these associations, which were poorly funded and mostly run by Post Office employees in their spare time, there were numerous clubs and guilds such as the Post Office Socialist League and sports and debating societies, which produced a wide range of literature and would have their successor Post Office social clubs through the twentieth century.

The amalgamated UPW was set up at the time when the government introduced the Whitley Councils, in 1919. The Whitley system dominated inter-war wage bargaining for the civil service as a whole and arguments presented for increased pay tended to be based on demands for a wage sufficient to cover the cost of living, and that was comparable with wages in the private sector and was thus guided by the market value of pay. Here, successive governments were cornered into having to 'set an example' in the formulation of reasonable wage schemes, especially following the economic downturns of the early 1920s and 1930s. During this period, and despite having little involvement in the general strike of 1926, the UPW became subject to the 1927 Trade Disputes and Trade Unions Act, which prohibited civil servants from joining unions affiliated to the Trade Union Congress. This state-enforced ban on trade union collusion in pursuing joint industrial interests circumscribed the effectiveness of the UPW until the end of the Second World War when this legislation was overturned.

From the amalgamation into the UPW in 1919 and for much of the remaining century, the organisational history of Post Office Associations and of staff representation in general concerns secessionist groups and the difficulties of keeping the UPW unified in its industrial negotiations. Because the amalgamated UPW acted on behalf of a qualitative and quantitative variety of job types, special interest groups composed along similar lines to the pre-amalgamated associations continued to exist, breaking away from the UPW and competing for their respective and often conflicting interests. This is a theme that Alan Clinton has emphasised in his comprehensive study 'The Post Office Workforce: A Trade Union and Social History' (London: Allen & Unwin, 1984). The secessionist groups with the largest membership in the inter-war period were the Guild of Postal Sorters; The Association of Counter Clerks; The Guild of Sorting Clerks and Telegraphists (SC&Ts); and the National Association of Postmen. Smaller groups included the Government and Overseas Cable and Wireless Operators Association and the Northern Ireland Postal Clerks Association.

Likewise, the secessionist organisations and representative bodies distinct from the UPW that dominated the post-war era were the National Guild of Telephonists; National Association of Postal and Telegraph Officers; Engineering Officers (Telecommunications) Association; Clerical and Administrative Workers Union; Civil Service Clerical Association; and after 1972, the Association of Professional Executive Clerical and Computer Staff.

The political and economic environment of the immediate post-war period was changed in that a Labour Government committed to full employment and an enlarged civil service gave the UPW more bargaining leverage and although gradual, significant improvements in pay and conditions were secured through the 1950s, as the UPW General Secretary Ron Smith argued in 1961. The Conservative dominated 1960s saw a more concerted effort to keep wage levels down and this precipitated a spate of negotiation and arbitration between the UPW and the government. The initial wage increases were too modest for many, leading to strikes in 1964, but a national all-out official strike was avoided when a more substantial pay increase was achieved later that year. In 1965, Tom Jackson became the UPW General Secretary and the following years were turbulent times for the UPW with protracted negotiations over capital and labour, instances of industrial action, particularly in 1968, culminating in the largest strike in the history of the Post Office: a six-and-a-half week national strike of all UPW members in January and February 1971. The UPW failed to gain the wage demands it had made in October the previous year when its members voted 14-1 to end the strike. The whole affair is estimated to have cost the Post Office £25 million in lost revenue. Clinton has argued that the strike had long term consequences for the UPW and Post Office wage bargaining, coming as it did at the beginning of a period in which the Post Office ceased to be a government department and in which it was stripped of its telecommunications functions (this was privatised under BT in 1984), along with the more recent restructuring that has included the more general amalgamation of Post Office Associations with the wider communications workforce in Britain.

Many facets of the above associations, strikes, negotiations and arbitration are covered in this class, including pre-amalgamation records, as well as material relating to the organisational structure and history of the UPW and the major controversies of the twentieth century including the UPW strike of 1971. For a full history see Alan Clinton 'The Post Office Workforce: A Trade Union and Social History' (London: Allen & Unwin, 1984). For Staff Associations and Union Publications see POST 115.

In 1934 as part of a general re-organisation of the Post Office, a Director General was appointed to replace the office of Secretary to the Post Office. At the same time a Post Office Board was created under the Chairmanship of the Postmaster General. Further re-organisation also took place in 1934 with the replacement of district surveyors by regional directors, who were given full powers of day-to-day control of local postal and telecommunications affairs in their regions.

The establishment of a functional board for the Post Office was first recommended in the Bridgeman report of 1932, and the Post Office Board was subsequently established with eleven members, including all the General Directorate and Directors. Recommendations made by the Board were put before the Postmaster General through the Secretary's Minutes to the Postmaster General. However the board had no executive power, and decisions rested ultimately with the Postmaster General. Although the Bridgeman Committee had envisaged the Board as a controlling body, in time it came to be more of a reviewing body and, due to its increasing size and the consequent difficulty of assembling members, its meetings became less frequent.

In November 1964 the board was reconstituted with the following members: Postmaster General, Assistant Postmaster General, Director General and the General Directorate, with Directors invited to attend as appropriate. The board considered and gave decisions on all major issues of policy and administration. In general, ministerial approval on important issues of policy was sought by submitting papers to the board and not by submitting minutes to the Postmaster General, except where a decision was urgently required before the board could be convened.

Before 1967 at Post Office Headquarters, 'common' engineering, finance, and personnel departments operated in parallel with Postal and Telecommunications service departments, all reporting through the general directorate to the Postmaster General. From 1967, Posts (which incorporated the existing remittance services and New Giro service) and Telecommunications were put under separate Managing Directors, each with nearly complete finance, personnel, and technological support provided by dividing up common departments.

A substantial 'central' personnel function remained and legal and some other services were left centralised. Telecommunications took on procurement and research for both businesses. The National Data Processing Service was established by Act of Parliament and began to function as an independent (central) service. Managerial links between Posts and Telecommunications began to disappear.

1969 was a year of change; with the passing of The Post Office Act in October 1969, the Post Office became a nationalised industry, established as a public Corporation.

For this reason there was two Post Office Boards in 1969; the 'old' Post Office Board (with Board papers carrying the 'POB' prefix) had its final meeting on 22 July 1969, after this, a newly constituted Board was formed and it had its first meeting on 25 July 1969 (Papers produced by the new Board were given the reference 'PO').

The Corporation was split into two businesses, Posts and Telecommunications. The office of Postmaster General was discontinued, and the Post Office was headed by a Chairman and Chief Executive/Deputy Chairman. This role was directly appointed by the Post Office Board. Members of the board also included the Managing Directors Posts and Giro, and Telecommunications, the head of the National Data Processing Service, members for industrial relations, technology and, from January 1970, a finance member.

Following the establishment of the Post Office Corporation, a second board was created, the Post Office Management Board. Both were responsible for overseeing operations, but the Post Office Board took responsibility for strategic issues, while the Post Office Management Board took over the day to day running of the Corporation. The Post Office Management Board was a non-statutory board which consisted mostly of full time board members and two officials. It was to meet monthly and receive reports from the businesses on their operations and review them in accordance with board policies, consider capital projects for which board approval was required, to examine the annual investment programme and other tasks as required.

In 1971, the Post Office Board established an Emergency Committee to handle the strike of that year.

During 1978-1979 the board operated under an experiment in industrial democracy with about half of its membership nominated by unions. This experiment was, however, considered to be unsuccessful.

In 1980, in preparation for the departure of British Telecom from the Post Office, two separate boards were established for the Telecommunications and Posts and Girobank businesses. These two new boards replaced the Post Office Management Board, and were additional to the main Post Office Board.

The main Post Office Board continued to oversee the transition period, although it met less frequently. The Chairman of the Post Office was the Chairman of both new boards (as was the Secretary) and the boards were intended to deal with matters wholly or mainly the concern of each business. They had the power to defer matters to the Post Office Board, and power to authorise action to proceed on decisions made by the board. It was stated that these boards were not intended to replace the Managing Director's Committees.

At this time, discussion was also begun regarding what procedures would be put in place to replace the 1978-1979 experiment in industrial democracy. It was suggested that a new joint body should be created for each of the businesses (Posts, and Telecommunications) titled the National Joint Policy Council, consisting of executive board members and the General Secretaries / Presidents of unions to meet and discuss a wider range of issues than the National Joint Council General Purposes Committee had done so previously. The idea was to air important policy, planning and performance issues on the National Joint Policy Councils before board decisions were taken to increase awareness of union views. In 1981 the National Joint Council General Purposes Committee was renamed the National Joint Council Posts and Giro Committee.

In 1980 the Chairman's Executive Committee was established by the Post Office Board. This Committee considered matters affecting the running of the Posts and Giro businesses relating to performance and progress against targets and personnel. This committee was renamed the Post Office Executive Committee (POEC) in September 1992.

In 1981 a Girobank and Counters Committee was established which comprised the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, board member for Finance, Personnel and Industrial relations member, Miss E Cole, Sir Clifford Cornford, Mr P E Moody, Senior Director National Girobank, the Director of Marketing and Customer Services National Girobank. In 1985 a Giro Board was created in anticipation of the establishment of Girobank as a public limited company (plc).

Also in 1981, the telecommunications business of the Post Office became a separate public corporation, trading as British Telecom. When the responsibility for telecommunications was transferred from the Post Office Corporation to British Telecom, copies of board papers relevant to the new corporation were passed to British Telecom. Following the 1981 split the Post Office was then re-organised into two distinct businesses: Posts and Parcels.

In 1981, the Post Office established an Audit Committee consisting of three part time members, the board member for finance and external auditors and internal auditors invited to attend as appropriate. It was to meet four times a year, with two meetings to consider the accounts, one to consider the external auditors letters to management, and one to meet internal auditors. The terms of reference for the committee stated that it was 'to review, as necessary, the financial policies and procedures of the Corporation and their implementation, including particularly the adequacy of the Corporation's internal control systems, and to report thereon to the Board through the Chairman of the Corporation.'

The Post Office was restructured during 1986 to create three businesses: Subscription Services Limited, Royal Mail, and Parcelforce, and the make up of the board members reflected this. In 1987 the network of Post Offices was established as Post Office Counters Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Post Office, and the Counters Management Committee was established in 1986 to replace previous monthly AD meetings. The principle of this committee was that it would deal with matters of a collective concern and of a longer term nature, for example, monthly monitoring reports and progress against the business plan. It was an effort to make more effective use of management time, and provide for more effective management of the counters business. It was renamed the Counters Executive Committee in July 1993, and reported to the Post Office Counters Board, and the main Post Office Board.

In 1988, business boards were established for the Letters, Parcels and Counters Businesses. A Major Projects Expenditure Committee (MaPEC) was also established during this year to deal with the financing of major one-off projects.

In 1990, Post Office Parcels changed its name to Parcelforce Worldwide and was launched as an independent division. National Girobank was also privatised in this year and sold to Alliance and Leicester Building Society.

The Postal Services Act 2000 created a company with more commercial freedoms and a more strategic relationship with government, and on 26 March 2001, it became a plc wholly owned by the UK government (its sole shareholder). A new regulatory framework was set up with an independent regulator (Postcomm) and a reformed consumer body (Postwatch). On 4 November 2002, a name change from Consignia to Royal Mail Group plc occurred.

The Royal Mail Group website states that the 'Royal Mail Holdings plc Board sets the strategic vision of the company. It is responsible for driving the four goals of the renewal plan: being a great place to work; improving customer service; returning to profitability; and delivering positive cash flow.' The Management Board 'comprises all the Executive Directors of Royal Mail Holdings plc and certain other Senior Executives of the Group. The Management Board develops and monitors deployment of the Group's strategy, annual operating plans and budgets for Board approval. It reviews operational activities, and sets policies where these are not reserved to the Board.'

There are three formal committees of the board including the following; Nomination Committee, Remuneration Committee, Audit and Risk Committee. Terms of reference for these committees can be found on the Royal Mail Group website. (http://www.royalmailgroup.com/portal/rmg/jump1?catId=23200529&mediaId=23200554 - last accessed November 2006).

The Postmaster General took over the private telegraph companies under the Telegraph Acts of 1868 and 1869, which authorised the Postmaster General to purchase, work and maintain telegraphs in the United Kingdom.

The role of the Post Office in broadcasting began as an extension of the monopoly on telecommunications into the area of wireless telephony. Initially, the transmission of sound by radio was viewed as a new means for sending messages, rather than a potential tool for broadcasting.

The Post Office was responsible for issuing wireless licenses from the 1920s and also for the cabling relating to wireless. It derived these powers from the Wireless Telegraph Act of 1904; in this act it was provided that in order to operate an apparatus either for transmitting and receiving wireless signals, it was necessary to have a licence and also that this licence may be in a form and with conditions determined by the Postmaster General. The Broadcasting Department also afforded facilities to the Post Office for announcing policy developments, such as the introduction of reduced telephone charges.

It was also responsible in the 1950s for issuing television licenses and introduced detecting vans who 'combed' the country for illicit television receivers, i.e. those individuals who had not obtained a television licence.

Upon the creation of the new Post Office Corporation in 1969, the Broadcasting Department of the former GPO was assimilated (with its active files) into the new Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

Accounts created during the transaction of Post Office business.

POST 9 consists of the following series: statements and accounts of gross and net produce of the General Post Office revenue; Receiver or Accountant General's cash account journals; accounts of daily, monthly, quarterly or annual receipts and payments, inland foreign and colonial services; District Surveyors' incident expense accounts, England and Wales; District Surveyors' monthly accounts of provincial riding work payments to contractors, England and Wales; Account of provincial postmasters' allowances and payments, England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; detailed returns of provincial post offices in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland; ledgers and lists of old debts of postmasters and other officers; salary schedules and authorities, GPO London, Twopenny Post Office and London District Post Office accounts; accounts of individual post offices, inland and overseas; miscellaneous accounts.

Born on 15 November 1866; educated at Merchant Taylors' School (1877–1885) and Jesus College, Oxford, 1885-1889; briefly worked as a private tutor at Dartmouth; selected by the Sandwich Islands committee (set up by the British Association and the Royal Society) to go as collector to the Hawaiian Islands, 1891; spent the greater part of the next ten years in the Hawaiian Islands collecting all groups of terrestrial animals; board of agriculture of the Territory of Hawaii, 1902-1904; director of the new division of entomology at the Hawaiian Sugar Planters' Association's experimental station, 1904; retired to England, 1912; awarded an Oxford DSc, 1906; gold medal of the Linnean Society of London 1912; elected FRS, 1920; died, 1955.

Born, 8 January 1803; educated at the high school, Edinburgh, and studied medicine at Edinburgh, Dublin, and Paris; surgeon with the East India Company, 1823; visited India and China five times, availing himself of every possibility to pursue his interest in natural history; returned to Britain, 1829; helped to establish the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club; private medical practice; appointment in the zoological department of the British Museum, 1841; FRS, 1867; died, 1872.

Publications: Cyclopaedia of the Natural Sciences (1858)

Dubois or "The Sieur Du Bois" was an early traveller to the islands of Madagascar and Bourbon in the years 1669-1672. In his account of his trip he made many references to species of birds he encountered, many of which are now extinct.

Born, 8 May 1749, sailed in March 1765 for Bombay as an East India Company writer; appointed member of council at Anjengo, 1772; officiated as chaplain, 1775, later secretary, attached to British forces sent to assist Raghunath Rao in the Maratha civil wars; embarked for England, 1 December 1775; returned to India, 1777; returned to England, 1784; elected to the Society of Antiquaries, 1801; fellow of the Royal Society, 1803; died, 1819.

Publications: Oriental Memoirs Reflections on the Character of the Hindoos (1810)

Letters from France (2 vols., 1806)

Born, 2 March 1811 ; educated at home until 1827; Thomas Arnold's school at Laleham, 1827; Oriel College, Oxford, 1828-1832; after he left Oxford, natural history became his main pursuit. He began to publish articles in the general areas that would continue to preoccupy him throughout his career: geological description, ornithology, and problems of classification and nomenclature. Accompanied William John Hamilton on a tour through southern Europe to Asia Minor, 1835-1836; summer journey through Scotland and Orkney, 1837; deputy reader in geology, Oxford University, 1850; elected a fellow of the Royal Society, 1852; died, 1853.
Publications: The Dodo and its Kindred (1848)

Born 1826; educated at Cotterstock, Northamptonshire, 1835–1837); Laleham, 1837–1839, Winchester College, 1839–1844, Christ Church, Oxford, 1844-1848; studied medicine, St George's Hospital, London, 1848-1851, house surgeon, 1852-1853; assistant surgeon in the 2nd Life Guards, 1854-1863; journalist for the Field newspaper, 1856-1865; started a weekly journal Land and Water, 1865; inspector of salmon fisheries, 1867; scientific referee to the South Kensington Museum, 1865-1880; died, 1880.

Publications: Curiosities of Natural History

Born, 1984; educated: Blundell's School, Tiverton, 1797; Winchester College, 1798-1801; Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1801-1804; fellow of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, 1808; ordained as a priest, 1808; reader in mineralogy, 1813; reader in geology, 1818; Royal Society's Copley medal, 1822; canonry of Christ Church, Oxford, 1825; dean of Westminster and rector of Islip, 1845; died 1856.

Publications: Geology and Mineralogy (1836)

Association of British Zoologists: formed at the Meeting of British Zoologists on 5 Jan 1929 "to ensure a permanent organisation, with a Council which can represent British Zoologists between their annual Meetings". The first Council meeting was on 11 Jan 1930. Final meeting held 13 Jan 1973.

Both Cobbe and Browne were involved in the nineteenth-century women's movement, whilst Eunice Murray was of a slightly later generation of women activists. Amongst other activities, Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), journalist, anti-vivisectionist, suffragist and social reformer, was an early member of the Kensington Society, the Enfranchisement of Women Committee and later a founder of the London National Society for Women's Suffrage and a member of the executive committee of the Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage. Annie Leigh Browne (1851-1936), suffragist, was a friend of Frances Power Cobbe, a founder of the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as County Councillors and a member of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage and its successor, the London Society for Women's Suffrage. Eunice Guthrie Murray (1877-1960) came from a family of Scottish suffragists, and by 1913 was President of the Women's Freedom League in Scotland. Later she became the first woman to stand in a parliamentary election in Scotland.

Mrs Amelia (or Lilla) Millward was born at Andover in 1870 and died at Wellingborough in 1958. She was an active suffragist in Southampton and later in Teddington as a member of the Teddington branch of the National Women Citizens' Association. Alex Sydney Millward was her son.

Ruth Homan was the daughter of Sir Sydney Waterlow, (1822-1906), first baronet, Lord Mayor of London and philanthropist. She took classes at the South Kensington School of Cookery and underwent basic nursing training at St. Bartholomew 's Hospital, London. In 1873 she married Francis Wilkes Homan but was widowed in 1880. Mrs Homan was elected to serve on the London School Board in 1891. She served as Chairman of the Tower Hamlets Divisional Committee and also as Chairman of the Domestic Subjects Sub-committee. By 1902 she was also Vice-chairman of the Industrial Schools Committee. In these capacities, Mrs Homan endeavoured to promote the teaching of cookery, laundry work and homecraft. She was also active in related organisations such as the Poplar Board School Children's Boot and Clothing Help Society, of which she was treasurer, and the London Schools Dinners Association.

Unknown.

The club named the Women's Institute (1897-1928) predated the more famous National Federation of Women's Institutes by almost two decades and was of a very different character. It was founded in 1897 at 15 Grosvenor Crescent by Mrs Nora Wynford Philipps and was intended to be a centre for women involved in the professions, education, social and philanthropic work. It was also intended to make other societies' work better known through its information bureau and co-operated with the Central Bureau for the Employment of Women regularly. It initially held weekly debates and 'at homes' run by the Executive Committee and organised a musical society, an art society, a recreational department, a circulating library, and a voluntary workers' society for philanthropic work. It also organised a secretarial department that undertook the training of typists and book keepers as well as an employment service for its members. At the same time it acted as a centre for the organisation of social and educational activities and a centre for research and dissemination of information on various subjects. It was responsible for the publication of several works such as Mrs Sidgwick's 'The Place of University Education in the Life of Women', pamphlet versions of lectures and the 'Dictionary of Employments Open to Women'. By the turn of the century it had over 800 members and maintained links with over 45 other groups, making it necessary to move to its second location at 92 Victoria Street from where a large range of other feminist organisations operated. In 1916 it was responsible for the opening of the Women's Club for the wives and mothers of servicemen and during the First World War gave rooms to the British Women's Patriotic League, the London School of Needlework, the Women's Local Government Society and the Head Mistresses Association amongst others. After the war, it was the location of meetings of the Dexter Club, the Censorship Club and the association for former members of the Scottish Women's Hospitals. While is appears to have still been active in 1925, activities ceased some time around 1928.

Not known.

The Women's Royal Naval Service (1916-1993) (WRNS), members known as Wrens, was formed in 1916 during the First World War. The Royal Navy was the first of the armed forces to recruit women and the Wrens took over the role of cooks, clerks, wireless telegraphists, code experts and electricians. In Nov 1917, Katharine Furse, the former Commander-in-Chief of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD), was appointed director. The women were so successful that other organizations such as the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) and the Women's Royal Air Force were established. By the end of the war, in Nov 1918, the WRNS had 5,000 ratings and nearly 450 officers. The Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS) of the First World War was demobilized in 1919 and was not reformed until Apr 1939. The main objective was for women to replace certain personnel in order to release men for active service. At first the Wrens were recruited from navy families living near the ports. During the Second World War the Women's Royal Naval Service was expanded rapidly. Between Dec 1939 and Jun 1945 numbers increased from 3,400 to 72,000.

The duties were expanded and included flying transport planes. WRNS units were attached to most naval shore establishment in Britain. A large number of women served abroad in both the Middle East and the Far East. Some members of the service were employed in highly secret naval communications duties. The Wrens remained in existence until 1993, when women were fully integrated into the Royal Navy.

Katharine Furse [née Symonds] (1875-1952) was born in Bristol, on 23 Nov 1875. She married Charles Wellington Furse (1868-1904), the painter in 1900, but he died four years later. In 1909 she joined the first Red Cross Voluntary Aid Detachments (VAD) attached to the Territorial Army. In the First World War (1914-1918) she was involved in setting up VAD stations in France and London. In 1916 she was appointed the First Commander in Chief Women's VAD and in 1917 Director Women's Royal Naval Service (WRNS, also known as the Wrens). She was created a Dame in 1917. She was a keen skier and was involved with the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts.

The Female Middle Class Emigration Society (1862-1908) was founded in 1862. The population explosion in England during the first half of the nineteenth century led government policy to encourage large scale emigration, while simultaneous concerns over the number of 'superfluous', unmarried women led to projects to stimulate female emigration. At the Social Sciences conference of 1860, Bessie Parkes advocated emigration as a solution to the population. This was also the belief and advice of Miss Maria S Rye after her experiences in the Society for Promoting Employment of Women, when she was deluged with applicants for a limited number of posts. She herself helped twenty-two women emigrate before attending the 1861 Social Sciences conference, when she appealed for help in establishing a new society to these ends. The Female Middle Class Emigration Society (FMCES) was therefore founded in May 1862 at 12 Portugal Street by a group which included Maria Rye, Jane E. Lewin, Emily Faithfull and Elizabeth (Bessie) Rayner Parkes, with the fund-raising assistance of Barbara Bodichon and with Lord Shaftsbury as its first president. Its stated aims were to assist middle class women who did not benefit from the government sponsorship for which working class women were eligible. Financed by public subscription and private donation, the society aimed to provide interest-free loans to enable educated women to emigrate. In addition, it established contacts at both departure and arrival points (mainly colonial ports). The first party, which included Maria Rye, was sent out to New Zealand in the autumn of 1862. At this point, Jane Lewin took over as Secretary, running the organisation from Sep 1862. Difficulties arose when it became clear that employers wanted working class domestics rather than middle-class governess and Rye, on her return in 1865, left to work with the emigrating working class with a particular interest in children's emigration. Lewin continued to concentrate on recruiting educators. In 1872, a further appeal for financial help was issued as the restricted funds which the society had at its disposal were limiting the number of emigrants being sent abroad. Lewin retired as secretary in 1881 to be replaced by Miss Strongitharm. The Female Middle Class Emigration Society was never a wealthy organisation and from 1884 to 1886 the funds were administered by the Colonial Emigration Society (CES) under Miss Julia Blake, its Secretary. The FMES was officially absorbed into the CES in 1886. In 1892 arrangements were made for the United British Women's Emigration Association to administer the loan fund. In 1908 Miss Lewin retired, and the Female Middle Class Emigration Society's later history is bound up with the British Women's Emigration Association.

The Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women's Suffrage Societies (1916-1918) was established in Mar 1916 by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in response to the government proposed changes to the national electoral register, to take effect at the end of the First World War. Its first meeting was held on 5th May and on the committee were representatives of twenty societies, with three more joining the following year. The first Chair elected was Eleanor Rathbone, the honorary secretary was Dr Gwynne Vaughn (replaced by Miss Ayrton Gould in 1917), the treasurer was the Countess of Selborne and the secretary was Helen Wright. It was through the medium of this committee that the suffrage societies co-ordinated the constituent societies efforts and petitioned the government for the inclusion of women's suffrage in the franchise Reform Bill. The committee's efforts were initially unsuccessful: the government's Electoral Reform conference that took place in Oct 1916 to address the issue initially refused to allow the Consultative Committee to give evidence. However, when Asquith was deposed from the premiership in Dec 1916, they were able to present their arguments to the authorities. In particular, the Consultative Committee was able to organise a Joint Parliamentary Committee comprising an equal number of MPs and women's representatives, which was active during the passage of the bill and produced a report in Jun 1917. When the prospect of a positive outcome became clear, the Consultative Committee called a conference in Jan 1918 to consider the possibility of joint action by Women's Societies after the passing of the Electoral Bill in the fields of political, economic and social equality between the sexes. The constitution was changed to accommodate these changes and 1918 it became the Consultative Committee of Women's Societies Working for Equal Citizenship.

National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC) (1918-1945) was formed out of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. After the 1918 Representation of the People Act which granted women limited suffrage, the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) decided to revise its previous aims and become the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship (NUSEC), remaining a high-level organisation designed to allow the affiliation of autonomous local societies with this object. However, the body now not only promoted equality of franchise between men and women but also extended this to the social and economic fields, working family allowances and the political education of women. During the 1920s they concerned themselves with issues such as restrictive legislation, limiting working hours which applied only to women and with the aim of 'protecting' them against industrial exploitation. However, there was no consensus within the group regarding the appropriate response to, 'protective' legislation and an ideological split occurred at this time between those who supported ideas such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' to women to allow their financial independence and those who adopted a more strictly equalist position. In the mid-1920s, the Labour government proposed a series of bills that would extend this protective legislation and NUSEC was pressurised to change its equalist policies on this issue. In response to this situation, a number of members left the group to form the Open Door Council in May 1926. The group also encountered consistent opposition from the Liberal government and it was only in 1927 that a deputation was permitted to meet with Prime Minister Baldwin. However, the passing of the People (Equal Franchise) Bill in Mar 1928 rewarded their efforts. The result of liberal hostility was that close co-operation developed with the Labour Party throughout the NUSEC's history. In 1932, it was decided that the organisation's campaigning and educational functions should be separated, the first being delegated to the National Council for Equal Citizenship, while education was passed on to the Townswomen's Guild. The National Council for Equal Citizenship continued its work until the end of the Second World War.

The National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (1898-1919) was established out of collaborative efforts by the various suffrage societies. In the 1890s, after the death of Lydia Becker, the suffrage movement suffered from a lack of unified leadership and divisions developed between groups. However, in 1895, with a general election imminent, the two main London societies and the other provincial organisations agreed to co-ordinate their activities. This temporary alliance worked well so that in Jun 1896 the London and Manchester groups formed a joint parliamentary lobbying committee, the Combined Sub-Committee, which representatives of Edinburgh and Bristol soon joined. At a conference in Brighton in Oct 1897 at which the country was divided up into administrative areas, it was recognised that there was a need for a national body and twelve months later a system of federation was agreed and the Combined Committee was reconstituted as the executive committee of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies. The new body's overall aim was to co-ordinate the various existing groups, act as a form of liaison committee between these groups and parliamentary supporters and thereby help obtain parliamentary franchise for women. These included the North of England Society (formerly the Manchester National Society for Women's Suffrage), the Central and Western Society (formerly the Central National Society for Women's Suffrage), the Central and East of England Society (formerly the Central Committee for Women's Suffrage) which the previous administrative division of the country had created as well as the provincial groups which existed throughout the country. Each of these independent organisations was represented by members on the NUWSS Executive Committee while the overall structure remained decentralised, with each local body autonomously responsible for work in their area. The constitution strictly forbade party political activity or affiliation on part of the parent or constituent bodies and this political neutrality was mirrored in the diversity of opinion within its leadership which included Millicent Fawcett, Lady Frances Balfour, Helen Blackburn, Priscilla Bright McLaren, Eleanor Rathbone and Eva Gore-Booth. Despite the formation of the new NUWSS, there was a marked decline in suffrage activity around the turn of the century as interests became focused on individual issues such as licensing and education while the Boer War overshadowed politics. A remedy for this inertia was sought through the National Convention in Defence of Civic Rights for Women, and in its wake the NUWSS's role changed as it began to implement a policy of creating local pressure committees financed and supported by the central body, creating more centralised planning. However, until 1906 their approach remained focused on supporting Private Members Bills in the House of Commons. The lack of success led some members to envisage a more radical method and in 1903 Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst founded the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in affiliation with the Independent Labour Party. Two years later, they left the North of England Society, and with it the NUWSS, to concentrate on the militant strand of the movement. The NUWSS continued alongside and subsequently in public opposition to the civil disobedience of the WSPU, preferring to persist in using constitutional means although they began to also undertake public activities such as marches, demonstrations, rallies and pageants in addition to their parliamentary work. By 1907, it was necessary to reorganise the system of regional federations due to their increasing numbers and which rose to nearly 500 by 1913. In addition, changes in the makeup of membership had an effect on the nature of the organisation. Increasing working-class participation, particularly in the Northwest, combined with disillusionment regarding the Liberal Party, which for decades had been their main parliamentary support, led to closer collaboration with the Labour Party. In 1912, the Labour Party made support for female suffrage part of its policy for the first time. When, that same year the NUWSS launched the Election Fighting Fund policy, which promised support to any party officially supporting suffrage in an election where the candidate was challenging an anti-suffrage Liberal, the effect was to effectively support the Labour Party. In 1914, dissension occurred in the NUWSS due to the groups' official stance of subordinating campaigning to support for war work. Many members, including a majority of the executive, left the group and many joined the Women's International League in 1915. However, political activity did not end: a National Union of Women's Interest committee was established to watch over the social, economic interests of women. Suffrage agitation was resumed in earnest in 1916, when the Consultative Committee of Constitutional Women's Suffrage Societies was established in Mar 1916 in response to the government proposed changes to the national electoral register, to take effect at the end of the First World War with the aim of petitioning the government for the inclusion of women's suffrage in the franchise Reform Bill. Consequently the NUWSS was key in the final creation of the women's franchise section of the Representation of the People Act of 1918. However, from Apr 1919, they redesigned their aims to promoting equality of franchise between men and women and allowing the affiliation of societies with this object, becoming the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship in the process.

The sisters Anna Maria (1828-1914), Mary (1830-1914) and Margaret (1817-1905) Priestman were daughters of Rachel Bragg, religious worker and anti-slavery campaigner, and Jonathan Priestman. They were born into Liberal and Quaker family networks, being sisters-in-law of John Bright (1811-1889) and friends of his sisters, including Priscilla Bright McLaren (1815-1906). All three Priestman sisters were born in Newcastle. In 1846 Margaret married Daniel Wheeler and moved away. Daniel died within a few years and she then married Arthur Tanner. Meanwhile, her sisters had moved to Bristol and Margaret also went to live there after the death of her second husband in 1869. All three were active in the suffrage campaigns and signed the 1866 suffrage petition and Anna Maria and Margaret were also involved in the Enfranchisement of Women Committee, 1866-1867. The sisters went on to be members of the Bristol and West of England Women's Suffrage Society, and the Central National Society for Women's Suffrage. They were also instrumental in founding the Women's Liberal Association in Bristol in 1881, the first in the country, and were involved in temperance and social work and in anti-Contagious Diseases legislation agitation. The Union of Practical Suffragists was formed within the Women's Liberal Federation in c.1896. Three years previously, Anna Maria Priestman had moved an amendment at a Women's Liberal Federation meeting to the effect that potential Liberal parliamentary candidates should be questioned about their support for women's suffrage before selection. The amendment was defeated but the 'test question' issue remained a live one for the Federation in subsequent years. In 1894 Anna Maria Priestman became president of a small organisation of those in sympathy with her position and by 1895 this group called themselves 'practical suffragists'. In 1896 they merged with a pre-existing Union of Practical Suffragists within the Women's Liberal Federation with the objective: 'to induce the Women's Liberal Associations to work for no Liberal candidate who would vote against Women's Suffrage in the House of Commons.' Mary Priestman was a member of the organisation's executive committee and Anna Maria Priestman was President from 1898-1899. Other members included Ursula Bright, Annie Leigh Browne, Louisa Martindale and Mary Kilgour. The Union was wound up in 1903 after it seemed that it had won its objective, although two years later the debate within the Women's Liberal Federation was re-opened. Margaret Priestman died in 1905, but both Anna Maria and Mary Priestman joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1907 and carried on active support for suffrage activities in the Bristol area. They died, within a few days of each other, in October 1914.

Ladies National Association for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice and for the Promotion of Social Purity (1869-1915) (LNA) was established in 1869. In the 1840s there was an upsurge in concern about prostitution in the United Kingdom. Evangelical Christians, socialists and chartists all condemned the industry and moral campaigns were established to suppress vice. However, only after 1857' Royal Commission report on the health of the army, and a follow-up report on the level of venereal disease in the military five years later did official tolerance of prostitution came to an end as the question became fused with contemporary concerns over public health. The result was three successive decrees in 1864, 1866 and 1869 known as the Contagious Diseases (referred to as the CD) Acts. By these, in certain towns containing military bases, any woman suspected of being a prostitute could be stopped and forced to undergo a genital inspection to discover if she had a venereal disease. If she did not submit willingly, she could be arrested and brought before a magistrate. If she was found to be infected, she could be effectively imprisoned in a 'lock' hospital. After the 1869 Social Sciences congress at which the CD Acts were raised and condemned, a number of individuals established the National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act. No women were originally included in the organisation though many later joined. The result of this omission was that by the end of Dec 1869, the Ladies National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts was formed. On New Year' Day 1870, one of their first actions was to publish in the Daily News a protest against the Acts. This was signed by 124 women including Florence Nightingale, Josephine Butler, Mary Carpenter, Lydia Becker and drafted by Harriet Martineau and became known as the Ladies' Protest. This manifesto document opposed the acts on several grounds: they gave unbounded powers over women to the police; they identified and penalised the wrong sex as the source of vice; they withdrew moral restraints on conduct without tackling the moral causes of disease; they posed a serious danger to civil liberties; and finally, the group claimed, they were incapable of diminishing disease. The group' treasurer was Mrs Jacob Bright and Butler acted as the honorary secretary. By Oct 1871, they had gathered 1400 members and by 1871 57 branches had been formed. At the end of that year the Executive Committee comprised: Mrs Jacob Bright, Lydia Becker, Mrs Blackburn, Miss Estlin, Mrs McLaren, Mrs E. Backhouse, Miss Merryweather, Mrs Nichol, Miss L Marche-Phillipps, Mrs Reid and Miss Wigham; Mrs Arthur Tanner had become its head and Josephine Butler remained secretary. Its main bases of support were in the North and Bristol: until 1873, the organisation had no London offices and support in this area remained weak until the 1880s. However, throughout its existence, it maintained ties with the National Association for the Repeal of the Contagious Diseases Act though maintaining its independence as a female organisation focused on moral rather than statistical arguments. Therefore, when the CD Acts were repealed in 1886, the organisation did not end as NARCDA did, but went on to fight for equal moral standards between the sexes as the Ladies National Association for the Abolition of the State Regulation of Vice and for the Promotion of Social Purity. In this incarnation, the body campaigned for the repeal of the Acts remaining in force in India. In 1915, they amalgamated with the British Branch of the British, Continental and General Federation for the Abolition of Government Regulation of Prostitution to become the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene.

The British Vigilance Association (1953-1971) was founded in 1953. During the late nineteenth century, the widespread campaign against the Contagious Diseases Acts had had the effect of focussing attention on the issue of prostitution. This resulted in the encouragement of groups like the National Vigilance Association whose aim until 1952 was to work against the trade and its causes. In 1898, following the precedent of the International Abolitionist Federation, the National Vigilance Association agreed to address concerns about the international aspect of prostitution and began laying the foundations of an international federation of bodies working towards the abolition of the trade. In 1900 this became known as the International Bureau for Suppression of Traffic in Persons.

Throughout its existence the National Vigilance Association provided the premises, secretariat and the major part of the funding for this officially separate international organisation and its executive committee initially formed the British National Committee of the larger group into the twentieth century. However, a financial crisis occurred within both the British National Committee (BNC) and the National Vigilance Association (NVA) in the early 1950s, closing down the latter's work administering the work of the Travellers' Aid Society that had been undertaken from 1939 to 1951.

The creation of the British Vigilance Association in 1953 was the result of the amalgamation of the BNC and NVA in 1952 after a period of work done by a joint committee of the two organisations. The new group retained the same areas of interest as the NVA, combining it with the BNC's relationship to the International Bureau. It also had the practical role of administering the day to day work of the International Traveller's Aid group of the international organisation until 1962, when the Young Women's Christian Association took over. The objects of the new group were to promote the principles of the International Bureau; to secure the recognition of a high and equal moral standards for men and women; to work for the suppression of criminal vice and against the exploitation of prostitution and public immorality; to promote appropriate legislative action and reform; and support activities in accordance with these objectives carried out by its constituent bodies. The structure of the Association was formed by: the Council which met four times a year and included the officers of the group and two representatives of each of the constituent societies; the Executive Committee, which met around ten times and was made of ten members elected by the Council; and the Finance Committee which consisted of seven members elected by the executive committee and met four times a year. Additionally, a sub-committee was established dedicated to the welfare of Irish Girls in England from 1953 to 1955, which was renamed the Irish Girls and Related Problems sub-committee between 1955 and 1957. Lady Nunburnholme was president until 1962 when Joan Vickers, MP and Chair of the UK Committee on the Status of Women, succeeded her.

Affiliated to the group were the Association for Moral and Social Hygiene, the British Social Biology Council, the Catholic Women's League, the Church of England Moral Welfare Council, the Mission to Seamen, the Mother's Union, the National Council of Women, the Public Morality Council and the St Joan's Alliance. Additionally, there were local branches such as the Liverpool, Hull and Scotland Vigilance Associations. The areas in which it worked revolved around the licensing of employment agencies and the overseeing of the au-pair network in order to prevent the abuses which, it was feared, they might hide. However, it was also active in protests regarding the Street Offences Act of 1959 that prosecuted female prostitutes for soliciting but not their clients. Furthermore, it also supported the Association for Moral & Social Hygiene in presenting evidence to the Wolfenden Committee on prostitution and in responding to the resultant report. The group continued its activities in these areas until the retirement of the General Secretary Richard F Russell in 1971, at which point the British Vigilance Association was wound up.

The National Vigilance Association (1885-1953) was founded at a time when the debate over the Contagious Diseases Acts and the regulation of prostitution had drawn public attention to the more general issue of the traffic of women and children. Investigations into child prostitution by WT Stead published in the Pall Mall Gazette increased pressure to pass a Criminal Law Amendment Bill. In order to achieve this immediate aim and support any future changes to the law deemed necessary, the National Vigilance Association was formed in Aug 1885 'for the enforcement and improvement of the laws for the repression of criminal vice and public immorality'. All local Vigilance Committees, and any other organisations with congruent aims, were to affiliate to this new body while in turn the central body was to stimulate the formation of new vigilance committees. The General Council consisted of delegates from the affiliated groups and other appointed members and early members included Mrs Fawcett, Mrs Percy Bunting, J Stansfeld MP, Mr WT Stead, Miss Ellice Hopkins, Mrs Mitchell, Mrs Lynch, Miss Bewicke, Mrs Bradley and Mrs Josephine Butler. At the initial meeting, an Executive Committee was appointed to manage the organisation's business and subcommittees were set up to deal with preventive, legal, organisational, parliamentary and municipal matters, as well as with registries, enquiries, the suppression of foreign traffic, finance and literature. The group grew rapidly at a local level and soon there were five branches of the association organised at a regional level: South Wales and Monmouthshire, Sunderland and North Eastern, Manchester and Northern Counties, Birmingham and Midland Counties and Bristol and South Western Counties. The new Association soon amalgamated with a number of other organisations working in the same field. The Minors' Protection Society merged with them in 1885, as did the Society for the Suppression of Vice, with the National Vigilance Association taking over responsibility for the work of the Belgian Traffic Committee. Discussions on a merger took place with the Central Vigilance Society from 1887 to 1891. The Association's activities also widened during this period. In 1899 the National Vigilance Association founded an international organisation, the International Bureau for the Suppression of Traffic in Persons. The Executive of the National Vigilance Association acted as the national committee for Britain within the framework of the International Bureau and in this context was known as the British National Committee though the personnel were identical at the time. Later, however, the British National Committee took on an extended role and became a separate, more broadly-based organisation in its own right which comprised representatives of all the major and some minor organisations for the protection of women and children. Subsequently, in 1917 the aims of the National Vigilance Association itself broadened once more to embrace the protection of women, minors (including young men) and children. To achieve this, they worked not only for the suppression of prostitution but also of 'obscene' publications and public behaviour. A Special Council was established concerned with 'the Suppression of the White Slave Traffic'. However, in the 1920s and 1930s the National Vigilance Association was constantly plagued with financial difficulties despite its merger with the Travellers' Aid Society in 1939. Rising costs and a diminishing income brought a financial crisis in 1951. In 1952 National Vigilance Association and British National Committee amalgamated once more, ending both their independent existences. Consequently, a new group emerged in 1953 which was named as the British Vigilance Association.

See the corporate history for Committee for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, 1869-1871

The creation of the Committee for Promoting the Higher Education of Women (1869-1871) was part of a wider debate about gender and education. Until the end of the nineteenth century, most middle-class girls were educated at home by the family, unlike their brothers who routinely attended university, and the schools which did cater for them were generally of a very poor academic standard, with emphasis on 'accomplishments' such as embroidery and music. However, some such as Louisa Martindale, tried to start her own schools for girls with more academically demanding curricula. Despite the failure of Martindale's exercise, Mary Francis Buss followed in her footsteps, however, when, at the age of twenty-three she founded the North London Collegiate School for Ladies with similar aims while in 1858 Dorothea Beale became Principal of Cheltenham Ladies College and transformed it into one of the most academically successful schools in the country. In 1865 Beale began collaborating with Emily Davis, Barbara Bodichon, Helen Taylor, Francis Buss and Elizabeth Garrett Anderson in forming a debating society which became known as the Kensington Society. There, these women who would be crucial in the development of these schools met for the first time to discuss this and other topics. At the same time, they also began researching the question of the entrance of women into higher education. The Queen's College in London had already opened in 1847 to provide a superior level of education to governesses and had proved a success without being an accredited institution of higher education itself. In this context and influenced by the London group, a large number of Ladies' Educational Associations sprang up throughout the 1860s and 1870s. Those in Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield, etc were brought together in 1867 by Anne Clough as the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women and its members included Josephine and George Butler as well as Elizabeth Wolstenholme-Elmy. This council began setting up a series of lectures and a university-based examination for women who wished to become teachers and which would later develop into a university Extension Scheme, despite most universities' continued general refusal to open their degree examinations to women. In the South, other small groups were formed to work for the entrance of women into tertiary education. One of these was the Committee for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, which met from 1869. Its committee included Lady Monteagle, Mrs Blunt, Mrs Brookfield, Mrs Stair-Douglas, Misses Foude, Crawford and Legge and the Rev Blunt. Amongst its activities it carried our social lobbying and, more practically, organised a series of lectures on subjects such as science and the classics. It may have been the establishment in 1871 of the residence of Newnham College for women who were attending lectures at Cambridge by Henry Sidgewick that prompted the cessation of that particular group's activities in that year, though the overall movement for educational parity continued well into the twentieth century.

Equal Rights International (1930-c.1940) was founded in 1930 when the franchise was granted to women in a growing number of countries, and women's activism in the West moved from suffrage to campaigning for equality of rights with men. When progress was impeded at a national level, many began to look to international change. Campaigning, by Vera Brittain amongst others, was undertaken to press the League of Nations to pass an Equal Rights treaty. In 1929 the British Six Point Group and Open Door Council had worked together to form Open Door International to secure this and equal pay for female workers and at first the League appeared to support this work. However, when plans for an equal rights treaty emerged, Open Door International opposed it as too vague to repeal contemporary discriminatory laws. In response to this situation, Equal Rights International was founded in 1930 by members of the Six Point Group with the support of the National Women's Party to continue the process, aiming to 'work for the adoption of the Equal Rights Treaty by all nations'. Members of the Geneva-based group included Vera Brittain, who was active in the promotion of the Equal Rights Treaty from 1929, Jessie Street, who became vice-president in 1930 and the journalist Linda Littlejohn who became president in 1935. Member countries of the League of Nations were lobbied to back the treaty, but no member country could be found to place the item on the Assembly's agenda. Despite this, work continued and the ERI became affiliated to the Liaison Committee of International Women's Organisations in order to gain increased access to members of the League of Nations secretariat. An initial lack of success was followed by hope in the late 1930s, when a committee of inquiry into women's legal status across the world was created. However, this work also came to nothing as the Second World War began. The organisation appears to have been wound up some time after this, c.1940.

Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp (1982-2000) was formed in response to NATO's decision in 1979 to base ground cruise missiles at Greenham Common. RAF Greenham Common had first became home to the US Army Air Force in Nov 1943, when the 354th Fighter Group moved in as part of the Allies efforts to meet the Nazi Government's aerial operations. Greenham Common, near Newbury in Berkshire, became a bomber operational training unit. Following the invasion of France, the Americans transferred their resources to France and Greenham Common reverted to RAF control until it was closed in 1946. However, as the Cold War began, it was reopened in 1951 as a US Strategic Air Command, coming into American Air Force operational control in Jun 1953. It was closed once more in 1961 only to be reopened in 1964, when it also became a NATO standby base. NATO's decision in 1979 to base ground cruise missiles at Greenham Common was a response to the proliferation of nuclear forces, which occurred throughout that decade. It was in the wake of this announcement that the Greenham Common Women's Peace Camp opened at this site. In Sep 1981 a Welsh group of 36 individuals opposed to nuclear power, called Women for Life on Earth, walked 120 miles from their headquarters to raise awareness of this issue and to protest against NATO's decision to site cruise missiles at Greenham Common. On reaching their destination they chained themselves to the perimeter fence and subsequently established a 'peace camp' there which was to remain for another two decades. The 'camp' itself consisted of nine smaller camps: the first was Yellow Gate, established the month after Women for Peace on Earth reached the airbase; others established in 1983 were Green Gate, the nearest to the silos, and the only entirely exclusive women-only camp at all times, the others accepting male visitors during the day; Turquoise Gate; Blue Gate with its new age focus; Pedestrian Gate; Indigo Gate; Violet Gate identified as being religiously focussed; Red Gate known as the artists gate; and Orange Gate. A central core of women lived either full-time or for stretches of time at any one of the gate camps with others staying for various lengths of time. From the beginning, links were formed with local feminist and anti-nuclear groups across the country while early support was received from the Women's Peace Alliance in order to facilitate these links and give publicity through its newsletter. In Mar 1982 the first blockade of the base occurred, staged by 250 women and during which 34 arrests were made. In May the first attempt to evict the peace camp was made as bailiffs and police attempted to clear the women and their possessions from the site. However, the camp was simply re-located to a nearby site. That same year, in Feb 1982 the camp went onto a women only footing and in Dec 1982, in response to chain letter sent out by organisers 30,000 women assembled to surround the site and 'embrace the base'. In Jan 1983 Newbury District Council revoked the common land bylaws for Greenham Common, becoming the private landlord for the site and instituting Court proceedings to reclaim eviction costs, actions that were ruled as illegal by the House of Lords in 1990. In Apr 1991, CND supporters staged action which involved 70,000 people forming a 14-mile human chain linking Burghfield, Aldermaston and Greenham. However, the first transfer of cruise missiles to the airbase occurred in Nov 1983. Another major event occurred in Dec 1983 when 50,000 women encircled the base, holding up mirrors and taking down sections of the fence, resulting in hundreds of arrests. In 1987, the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty was signed by the USA and the Soviet Union, and two years later in Aug 1989 the first step in the removal of cruise missiles from the Greenham Common airbase occurred, a process that was completed in Mar 1991. The American Air Force handed control of the base to the Royal Air Force in Sep 1992, who handed the base over to the Defence Land Agent three weeks later. On 1 Jan 2000 the last of the Greenham Common Women protestors left the camp. A memorial garden was erected after this - the only individual name included in the memorial was that of Helen Wynn Thomas who had died in an accident at Greenham on 5 Aug 1989.

The League of Church Militant (1909-1928) was founded as the Church League for Women's in 1909, a non-party organisation open to members of the Church of England who wished to campaign 'to secure for women the vote in Church and State.' In 1917 it became the League of Church Militant with aims including the establishment of equal rights and opportunities for men and women both in Church and State and the 'settlement of all international questions on the basis of right, not of might.' After the end of the First World War it shifted its main attention to the following aim, as adopted at a Council meeting in 1919: 'To challenge definitely … what has hitherto been the custom of the Church of confining the priesthood to men.' After the Franchise Act received Royal Assent in 1928, the League felt that one of its main aims had been realised and that, whilst it still desired to see women ordained to the ministry of the Church, felt that this might be better carried on through other means. In 1928 it therefore decided to wind up its affairs. The campaign for the ordination of women was continued by the Anglican Group for the Ordination of Women (f 1930) and many of those, including E Louie Acres, who had been active in the League, were prominent within the Group.

The London Feminist History Group (1973-1989) was established in 1973 as an informal discussion group that met in the homes of participating members and was the first organisation of its kind in the UK. Its main function was to provide a supportive and productive atmosphere in which to create works of feminist history and to support new women's studies course students. The general emphasis was to share information and problems and provide support and stimulus to those women doing research. Members were defined as those who took part in each meeting; these meetings were led by one or two women who acted as convenors and undertook the administration of the organisation for a year before passing the role to another. The group invited speakers to address meetings on a regular basis as well as holding 'work in progress'; meetings were members discussed their own projects. From its beginning, the group had close links with the Women's Research and Resources Centre through a number of mutual members and the two organisations shared homes over a period of several years until the early 1980s. The group was wound-up in 1989.

The Married Women's Association (1938-1988) was formed in 1938 as a result of the failed attempts of the Equal Rights International Group, set up by members of the Six Point Group, to persuade the League of Nations to incorporate an Equal Rights Treaty in the Equal Rights International Group Constitution. Juanita Frances had been working in Geneva as part of the operative. After three unsuccessful meetings she drew up plans for a separate organisation to work chiefly for the rights of housewives and mothers and the Married Women's Association was born. It was to be a 'non - party and non - sectarian' association and its management was initially conducted at 20 Buckingham Street, London WC2. Prominent members included Edith (later Baroness) Summerskill, Vera Brittain, Helena Normanton and Lady Helen Nutting. Edith (later Baroness) Summerskill was the association's first president, other presidents included Vera Brittain and Juanita Frances. The aims of the Association were to: a) promote legislation to regulate the financial relations between husband and wife as between equal partners; b) secure for the mother and children a legal right to a share in the marital home; c) secure equal guardianship rights for both parents; d) extent the National Insurance Acts to include women on the same terms as men. The Association later included additional objectives, which were to: e) extend family allowances; f) establish equal pay; g) awaken women to their full political responsibilities. In order to achieve these goals members conducted deputations to ministers; held public meetings, debates and social activities and the Association published its own newsletters, namely: Wife and Citizen (1945-1951) and the Married Women's Association Newsletter [1966-1987]. In 1952 a significant disagreement between members led to a split within the Association. Helena Normanton had prepared evidence for submission to the Royal Commission on Marriage and Divorce and she had included proposals, which other members vehemently objected to. It was felt that the evidence was for the benefit of privileged women and as such, the position of ordinary women would remain at a disadvantage, which would be contrary to the Association's objectives. Helena Normanton and Mrs Gorsky (Chair) left to form the Council of Married Women and were joined by Lady Helen Nutting. The Married Women's Association continued up until the 1980s. A rough minute book entry of 6 Dec 1981 states that there will be no further meetings due to ill health and family commitments. However, the records contain Executive and AGM minutes to 1983 and correspondence to 1988. The extension of family allowances, establishment of equal pay and helping women to recognise their political responsibilities became later objectives. 'Wife and Citizen' (1945-1951) and the 'MWA Newsletter' were the official organs of the Association.

The National Women Citizens Association (1917-1975) was founded in 1917 at a time of concern in how women could be active citizens. After decades of campaigning for women's suffrage, initiatives were established to lay the foundations of women's informed political participation in the early part of the twentieth century. From 1913, autonomous local Women Citizen's Associations were formed throughout the United Kingdom following Eleanor Rathbone's initiatives in Liverpool and Manchester. Their aim was to stimulate women's interest in social and political issues in order to prepare them for active citizenship. When it became evident in 1917 that women were about to be awarded the parliamentary vote, more of these organisations were established. In Jun 1917, the National Union of Women Workers called a meeting of British women's organisations at which the issues surrounding this were discussed. It was here that the NUWW drew up the Provisional Central Committee on the Citizenship of Women, with members drawn from interested societies, though acting in a private capacity. It was their intention to continue to stimulate interest through the work of the existing societies but also to help form local groups that would affiliate to this central body. At the Nov 1917 conference of the 42 affiliated societies of the National Union of Women Workers, the plans and procedures of the new body were accepted by the Executive Committee. The first election of the Central Committee took place that Dec 1917, followed by a change of name to the National Women Citizen's Association. Helena Normanton was the first Secretary. In early 1918 the first of the local branches began to appear and when, in that year, the franchise was finally given to women, the numbers of affiliated organisations increased as suffrage groups changed their names and objectives to fit new circumstances. During the early 1920s a number of Women's Local Government Society branches affiliated, eventually becoming women's citizenship groups when the parent body dissolved in 1925. This saw the NWCA assume greater responsibility for work in the area of local government through the second half of this decade and into the 1930s. Despite this, there was a decline in interest and activity in the group before the Second World War. However, this situation was reversed after the war. In 1947, the organisation amalgamated with the National Council for Equal Citizenship and then, in 1949, with Women for Westminster. There was a corresponding increase in activity leading up to the Festival of Britain in 1951, so that in the 1950s it was necessary to reorganise the local branches into five regional federations. Local branches continued to be established into the 1960s. However, there was a another decrease in activity and the NWCA disbanded in 1974 despite some local branches continuing and an attempt being made by some former officers to revive the group in 1975.

Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker (1929-1974) was established in 1929. After 1918, women over the age of thirty became entitled to vote for their MP and women's organisations that had previously campaigned for women's suffrage began to concern themselves with a wider range of issues. The sudden mass redundancy of women who had occupied traditionally male-dominated jobs between 1914 and 1918 focussed attention on the issue of women's employment and financial inequality. At the same time, they concerned themselves with the ongoing issue that had first been raised in the previous century: restrictive legislation such as limiting working hours which applied only to women and with the aim of 'protecting' them against industrial exploitation. However, there was no consensus within the movement regarding the appropriate response protective legislation. An ideological split occurred at this time between those who supported ideas such as an 'Endowment of Motherhood' to women to allow their financial independence and those who adopted a more strictly equalist position. In the mid-1920s, the Labour government proposed a series of bills which would extend this protective legislation and the National Union of Societies for Equal Citizenship of the time was being pressurised to change its equalist policies on the issue. In response to this situation, the Open Door Council was established in May 1926. Its object was to ensure a woman's opportunities, right to work and to protection at all stages of her life were the same as those of a man. From its creation, the group intended to organise an international group to further their aims. The Open Door Council always hoped to be an international group and in its first year, an international committee was formed. In Jun 1929 it held a conference in Berlin for individuals and organisations concerned with equality within the workplace. From this emerged a group called the Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker with Chrystal Macmillan as the first president. Sympathetic individuals and organisations from 21 countries supported the group until the Second World War, but when the first post-war meeting was called in 1945 for board members of international branches, several previously flourishing branches failed to send representatives. Conferences resumed in 1948, but its sphere of influence shrank to Scandinavia, Belgium and Britain in the 1950s and the decline continued through the next decade. The organisation dwindled until it came to an end, without any winding up meeting, in 1974.

The Women's Research and Resources Centre (WRRC) was established in Jul 1975 as a library, information service and meeting place for people interested in developing Women's Studies, feminist research and the questions surrounding issues of sex equality and discrimination. In 1983 the name was changed to the Feminist Library.

Edith Watson was a member of the Women's Freedom League (WFL) and was involved in the protest which took place on the river Thames in 1913. She became involved with the newspaper 'The Vote' which was published by the WFL and became one of its regular journalists and its court correspondent as well as sending copy covering suffrage events to other newspapers such as the Daily Herald . She became involved at this time in calling for women journalists to be allowed to remain in court when assault charges were being discussed. During the First World War she joined Nina Boyle in establishing the first Women's Volunteer Police Service as well as becoming involved in other areas of civil defence. She moved to Watford in 1945 where she remained politically active. That same year she also became the secretary of the Divorce Law Reform Union.

The Federation of Women Civil Servants (1916-1932) was founded in 1916 as women became employed in this sector. At the end of the nineteenth century, there was great opposition to women's employment amongst male employees, in contrast to employers' acceptance of a new workforce who worked for lower wages and was less inclined to industrial agitation. This hostility also affected the male-dominated trade unions of the period, especially those concerned with the Civil Service. This meant that women civil servants of the time continued to occupy separate and lower grades than those of men, and a marriage bar prevented them continuing to work after they became wives. It was not until the turn of the century that female trade unions agitation for equal pay and conditions with the male workforce began. The Federation of Women Civil Servants was established in 1916 as an amalgamation of the Federation of Women Clerks and the Civil Service Typists Association. The Federation of Women Civil Servants represented all permanent and established female public servants other then writing assistants. Along with most of the civil service trades unions, was involved in efforts to introduce arbitration and militated for what would become Whitley Councils. After the end of the First World War such action helped bring about a major restructuring of the service. Grades that had been unique to each of the departments were now merged across the entire service to form four basic bands. However, the Federation was vocal in its opposition to the report presented by the official Joint Reorganisation Committee. Despite the statement of the Sex Disqualification Act of 1920 that 'women should have equal opportunity with men in all branches of the Civil Service and Local Authorities', it maintained there should be a separate selection process for women that did not involve the traditional examination and supported lower wages for women working in the same grades as men. When the mixed unions failed to support their position, the Federation withdrew from the staff side of the Council as well as from the Civil Service Alliance, losing its seat on the National Whitley Council in the process. The changes to the organisation of the Civil Service grades resulted in the merger of trade unions that had previously been structured around specific departments. When women were finally assimilated into the general grading system in 1920 as part of the restructuring, the Federation found itself weakened as members left for larger mixed unions that were better represented on the Whitley Councils. In 1928, the rules of membership were changes to allow them to affiliate temporary workers previously covered by the Association of Women Clerks & Secretaries. The resulting situation led to the eventual amalgamation of the two in 1932 and the creation of the National Association of Women Civil Servants.

The Women's Employment Publishing Company Ltd (1913-1974) was established by the Central Employment Bureau for Women around 1913-1914 in order to deal with its publications. The Central Bureau had been issuing the twice-monthly journal 'Women's Employment' since 1899 and other occasional publications in connection with their work and the Women's Employment Publishing Company continued this work from the head office in Russell Square. In addition to the main periodical, the press was also responsible for the publication of numerous editions of 'Careers (later, and 'Vocational Training'): 'A Guide to the Professions and Occupations of Educated Women and Girls', 'The Finger Post', 'Hints on how to find work' and 'Open Doors for Women Workers'. The directors just before the outbreak of the Second World War were H John Faulk (Chair), Miss ER Unmack (Managing Director) and Miss AE Hignell (secretary). Despite problems caused by this disruption and a decline in the number of readers in this period, the company survived and continued publishing 'Women's Employment' until 1974. The Bureau seems to have ceased functioning at around the same date.

The Women's Engineering Society (WES) (1919-) was founded in 1919 and largely financed by Lady Margaret Eliza Parsons, who acted as its first President while Dame Caroline Haslett served as first General Secretary between 1919 and 1929. Lady Moir acted as President between 1928 and 1930, followed by Verena Holmes between 1930 and 1932, Amy Johnson (1934-1937) and Caroline Haslett (1939-1941). The WES emerged from the Engineering Committee of the National Council of Women. This had been set up to look at the position of women employed in munitions. In spite of the restoration of Pre-War Practices Act, compelling many employers to dismiss women workers, enough women remained in engineering and enough women wanted to enter the profession to make the WES worthwhile.

The Society was initially based in London, but other branches soon followed in Newcastle, Manchester and the Midlands. The objectives of the organisation were: to promote the awareness of engineering as a prime creator of wealth in society and the contribution women can make to it; to promote the training and education of women engineers, to ensure women engineers can influence the process of policy formation and decision-making in government and other organisations; to foster good practice in the employment of women engineers in order to enable them to progress equally with male colleagues; to provide a network of members and support.

The first Annual Conference was held in Birmingham in 1923. The Council met four times per year. Additionally, the society launched the Verena Holmes Lecture Fund in 1969 to encourage young people to join the engineering profession and to give career advice. The Caroline Haslett Memorial Trust awards university scholarships. The official organ of the society, since 1919, was 'The Woman Engineer', published quarterly.

The WES launched and kept close links with the Electrical Association of Women. In 1925 the Society, with outside help, organised the Conference of Women in Science, Industry and Commerce held at the Empire Exhibition, Wembley. In 1934, the WES persuaded the International Labour Organisation to amend the Washington Convention on the issue of women working during the night.

Ira Rischowski (fl 1899-1977) was born in Germany in 1899 and trained as an engineer receiving a Dipl. Ing. VDI, a German degree which corresponds to the English B.Sc. She was an active member of the German anti-Nazi and socialist group 'Org.' in the 1930s and after having been shortly imprisoned in 1935 she emigrated to Britain with her husband. When she came to Britain she worked as a draughtswoman and planning engineer at Tuvox Ltd., Middlesex from 1942 to 1944, but then transferred to James Gordon Ltd, London where she made a career from draughtswoman to Head of Projects Department in 1956 and where she worked until her retirement.

She became an Association member of the WES London Branch on 27.11.1939, a full member in 1949 and an Honorary member in 1977. She served on the London Branch Committee, was a member of Council from 1948, was Chair of the Equal Pay Sub-Committee and of the Training and Opportunities Sub-Committee.

Women in Libraries (1979-1990) was founded in 1979, relatively late in the history of women working in libraries. In 1909 a survey found that 41 percent; of librarians were women. By the 1960s, however, 70%; of the profession were female. Despite this rise, women's wages in the area remained lower than those of both their male colleagues and women in other professions. In 1979, Sheila Ritchie undertook research into the positions and pay of female librarians and produced an article entitled '2000 to 1: a sex oddity' which was published in 'Assistant Librarian' in Mar 1979. It contained a statistical analysis of figures on women in the field and highlighted the fact that though women staffed most public libraries, it was male staff that dominated senior positions in the profession. In response to this, and together with Sherry Jesperson, Avril Rolph, Jane Little, Jane Allen and Briony Vitow, she helped found the first feminist group for women working in this field. In 1979 a meeting of 20 women was held at the Polytechnic of Central London and an inaugural conference was held in the spring and attracted over 200 women that arrived at three principle points. These were: firstly, the rights of women as employees in the profession and as library users were not being given proper attention; secondly, a movement was needed to put this right; thirdly, it should not be restricted to feminist librarians, but open to all women, staff and users. Following a meeting in Sep 1980 organised by Avril Rolph and Sherry Jespersen, a group of around 10 women, initially known as 'The Feminist Library Workers' Group', held regular meetings to organise a conference, which was held in Feb 1981 at the Polytechnic of Central London. It was based on two main themes: women's position as workers in libraries and women's role in libraries as those both choosing and using books. Workshop sessions were held to discuss related topics. Sheila Ritchie and Jane Little (one of the organising group) were guest speakers. At the end of the meeting, a group was formally brought into being, entitled 'Women in Libraries', and a majority vote decided that it should be open to women only.

This group was initially put forward as the Library Association Group for Women's Interests and Education but was rapidly changed to Women in Libraries. The subscription was £5 and a newsletter entitled WiLPower was issued on a regular basis. Quarterly meetings were held, though changes were soon made to the structure of the group, which would move it from being a traditionally structured organisation to a looser collective framework. Initially it was also decided not to affiliate to the Library Association so as not to exclude non-members of the Association from the group. Their attempts to be accepted as a Group of the Library Association (LA) failed because of their policy of restricting membership to women only and because of the perception that their aims were political rather than professional. In order to be able to affiliate, they opened up membership at all members of the Library Association and other interested parties. They then redefined themselves as a body in existence to provide a forum for members to identify and work towards the solution of problems common to women in libraries and the library profession by several means. Those were: collecting and disseminating information relevant to the personal development of women in libraries and the profession; working with members to identify continuing educational needs for women library workers and provide appropriate educational opportunities; to provide mutual support and assistance to women library workers; to provide advice to library workers of either sex who felt they had been subject to sexual discrimination; and to promote the involvement of women in the Library Association.

Through the national management and new local sub-groups, they continued to encourage writing on women in libraries and held workshops which were later published as well as running career development programmes and monitoring of stereotyping in library stock. Additionally, they were active in raising and discussing areas of interest such a job-sharing that later became official practice, later became official practice. It ceased its work in the early 1990s.

Alice Helena Alexandra Williams (1863-1957) was born on 12 Mar 1863 at Castel Deudraeth, in Wales. The youngest of 14 children of David Williams MP, she had no formal education. During the first World War, Alice Williams worked for the French Wounded Emergency Fund. With friends, she set up the Signal Bureau in Paris, to give advice to those searching for the injured, the missing and refugees. The French government subsequently awarded her the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Francaise. A keen supporter of the Women's Institute movement, she became the president of the Deudraeth group and gave the ground and raised funds for the building of Britain's first Institute Hall at Penrhyndeudraeth. Williams was elected to the National Federation of Women's Institutes, as their first Honorary Secretary and then to the Executive Committee that superceded it in Oct 1918. When this position was abolished to make way for that of paid General Secretary, Williams once more took the role until she resigned to devote more time to her other position of founding editor of its journal, 'Home and Country' in Oct 1919. She retired as editor in 1920. In addition to her work with the Women's Institute, Alice Williams was also responsible for the setting up of branches of the Lyceum Club in Paris and Berlin. In 1919 she was the founder and the first chair of the Forum Club in London. She also took the chair from 1928 until 1938. Her watercolours were frequently exhibited, and she was a member of the Union des Femme Peintres et Sculpteurs, Paris and of the Union Internationale des Aquarellistes, Paris. Williams was a writer specialising in poetry and verse that commemorated special occasions. She also wrote a number of published plays and pageants such as 'Aunt Mollie's Story' (1913), 'Britannia' (1917), 'Britain Awake: An Empire Pageant Play' (1932) and 'Gossip' (1935). She was made a bard under the name of Alys Meirion in 1917 and received a CBE in 1937. She died on the 15 Aug 1957, aged 94.

A Muriel Pierotti (1897-1982) was born in Bristol in 1897 and her family moved to London when she was ten. Her mother joined the Women's Freedom League shortly after moving to London and involved her daughters from an early age. Muriel's father, a committed socialist, worked as a Post Officer sorter before working in the Assistant Controller's office at the PO headquarters at Mount Pleasant. Muriel was educated at elementary schools, leaving her London Secondary School at 18 for a wartime position in the Civil Service. Muriel qualified as a secretary and worked for some years at a hospital school in the country, run by Mrs Kate Hervey, a friend of Mrs Despard. When the hospital school closed, Muriel moved to the National Union of Women Teachers in 1925, becoming Assistant Secretary in 1931. When Miss Froud retired as General Secretary in Sep 1941, Muriel replaced her and remained in post until the NUWT closed down. She wrote its history 'The story of the National Union of Women Teachers' in a pamphlet published in 1963. Muriel Pierotti was closely involved with a number of women's campaigning organisations throughout her life. She was a member of the Women's Freedom League, before 1918, along with her sister Lilian (who died in 1956) and knew both the Pethick-Lawrences and Charlotte Despard. She remained with the organisation throughout the 1920s and was active in the campaign for equality of suffrage until 1928 when it was granted. In 1925, she was the author of a pamphlet entitled 'What We Have and What We Want!' She was also an active trade unionist and involved with the Equal Pay Campaign which took place during the 1940s and 1950s. She continued to engage with the issues affecting the status of women throughout the next few decades, becoming a member of the Joint Standing Committee of Women's Organisations in the 1940s to consider questions relating to the civil and political status of women. Muriel was also involved in organising the production of Jill Craigie's film 'To Be A Woman' which was co-sponsored by the NUWT and the Equal Pay Campaign Committee. She was also a member of the Status of Women Committee from 1945 to 1978.

Betty Heathfield (1927-2006) was born into a mining family in Chesterfield, Derbyshire. She attended Chesterfield Girls' School and won a university scholarship, which she did not take up for financial reasons. Instead she left school at sixteen to work as a secretary in a local engineering company and became interested in left-wing politics, joining the Young Communist League. In 1953 she married Peter Heathfield, a miner who became the general secretary of the National Union of Mineworkers. She was active in her own right in labour politics in Chesterfield, as a member of the Co-Operative Women's Guild, and a founding member of the Derbyshire Women's Action Group. She became one of the spokeswomen and leading members of the national Women Against Pit Closures organisation during the miners' strike of 1984-1985. Alongside Anne Scargill she led the support campaign for miners' families - organising financial aid, holidays for children, and touring the USA and Canada to raise support for British mining communities. She also took part in an oral history and writing project to document the experiences of women during the action. After the end of the strike, Heathfield studied for a politics degree at Lancaster University. She was also involved in a Women's Co-operative Guild Age Exchange Theatre Company project on the history of the Guild. After suffering from Alzheimer's disease she died on 16 Feb 2006.

Georgina Agnes Brackenbury (1865-1949) studied at the Slade School of Fine Art from 1888-1900. She was a member of both the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the Women's Social and Political Union. She was arrested in Feb 1908, after taking part in a raid on the House of Commons and was sentenced to six weeks in Holloway Prison. After her release, she continued in militant suffrage activities and was imprisoned for a month in 1912 for smashing windows. She was the daughter of Hilda Brackenbury (1832-1918) and sister of Mary Brackenbury (1866-1946), who were both also involved in militant suffrage activity.

Bayard Simmons (fl.1906), author, poet and contributor to 'The Freethinker', was a member of the Men's Social and Political Union for Women's Suffrage. He was the first man to go to prison for the cause of women's suffrage, spending two weeks in Brixton Prison in 1906.

Charlotte Despard (1844-1939) was born in 1844, the daughter of Captain William French and Margaret Eccles. In the 1850s her father died and her mother became mentally ill, resulting in the child being sent to London to live with relatives. Her early experiences in London led her to become politically radical at a young age but she was not active until after her marriage in 1870 to Maximilian Despard a wealthy Anglo-Irish businessman (one of the founders of the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank), who was, like her, a rich radical Liberal. Charlotte supported Home Rule for Ireland from 1880. In 1874 Despard published her first novel, Chaste as Ice, Pure as Snow which would be followed by several more in rapid succession. Her husband died in 1890, and she emerged from the resultant depression through involvement in social work at the Nine Elms Mission in Battersea where she would eventually move the following year. From 1894-1903 she acted as a poor law guardian in Vauxhall, taking on more responsibility as a school manager in 1899. In this period her political views became more marked, supporting the Marxist Social Democratic Federation and eventually being nominated as one of their representatives at the second International in 1896. This association continued until 1906 when she became a member of the Independent Labour Party. For a short time she was involved in the Union of Practical Suffragists and then the Adult Suffrage Society that called for votes for women of all levels of society. However, these affiliations were later to go into abeyance when she became a leader of the militant suffragette movement alongside the Pankhursts. Her initial reaction to the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was hostile due to their willingness to accept a socially limited franchise and in 1906 she spoke out against them at the first meeting of the Women's Labour League. It was the former Labour Party organiser Teresa Billington-Greig who finally convinced her to become a member and in the summer of 1906. After the resignation of Sylvia Pankhurst and the arrival of Emmeline and Christabel in London, Despard became the Joint Secretary of the WSPU with Edith How-Martyn, while also becoming active on a practical level. In Feb 1907 she was arrested during the demonstration from the 'Women's Parliament' held in Caxton Hall to the Houses of Parliament and was sentenced to three weeks in prison. However, in the Spring of 1907, rifts began to grow between Despard and the Pankhursts when it became clear that WSPU election policy meant that the group were effectively supporting Conservative candidates as a means of opposing Liberal candidates. Despard, How-Martyn, and Anne Cobden Sanderson jointly sent a message to the Independent Labour Party conference to state that they would not take part in any by-election where a Labour Party candidate was standing. This was immediately publicly repudiated by Emmeline Pankhurst.

In Sep 1907, the WSPU's annual meeting was cancelled by the Pankhursts and the group's constitution changed without consultation of members. However, Despard and Billington-Greig together organised another conference for the intended day and effectively began the Women's Freedom Party that still took a militant approach but concentrated on non-violent illegal methods. The following year, she spent five months touring the country in a caravan. 1909 began with her being arrested for leading a delegation to speak to the Prime Minister, but was discharged after five days for ill health. The following month she was officially elected president of the Women's Freedom League. In 1911 she was one of those who organised resistance to the census which took place that year as well as becoming the editor of 'the Vote'. The sheer range of her activities caused some colleagues to question her focus as leader of the WFL and dissent began to grow, resulting in the resignation of Billington-Greig and attempts to oust her from the leadership of the organisation after the failure of the Conciliation Bill in 1912. In the event, it was the majority of the executive board that resigned and Despard remained in place and attended the Budapest Congress of the International Woman Suffrage Alliance the following year in this capacity. When war was declared in 1914 the Women's Freedom League rejected the pro-war stance of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies and the WSPU which both suspended their suffrage campaigns.

Instead, in 1915, Despard joined the Women's International League, the National Council for Civil Liberties, the Women's Peace Crusade and the No Conscription Fellowship and in 1917 she resigned as President of WFL to concentrate on working for the Women's Peace Crusade. Also in 1917 she attended the convention of the British Socialists in Leeds in 1917 at which the Revolution in Russia was welcomed and where she was elected to the provisional committee of the Workers' Socialist Federation. After the Qualification of Women Act was introduced in 1918, Despard stood as the ultimately unsuccessful Labour candidate in Battersea in the post-war election, having resigned as the leader of the WFL.

Despard had been interested in Irish politics from a campaigning visit to Dublin in 1909. She was strongly in favour of Home Rule, but after the death of the hunger-striker Terence Macswiney she committed most of her time and money to the cause of communism in Ireland. She moved to Ireland in 1920 and thereafter only visited London briefly each summer. She lived and worked with Maude Gonne in Dublin to create a reception centre for displaced people as well as campaigning against the British policy of internment. Despard formed the Women Prisoners' Defence League, which was later banned. Despard also paid for the establishment of a factory intended to give employment to Republicans who were economically discriminated against. In 1921 she moved to Roebuck House a mansion outside Dublin that would frequently be raided by the police looking for IRA members who found a safe house there. However, she later resigned from Sinn Fein as a response to the factionalism of its members. She visited the Soviet Union in 1930, and took the decision to move from Dublin to Northern Ireland in the wake of an attack on the Irish Workers' College, which she had financed for some time. In moving to Belfast she handed Roebuck House to Maude Gonne. In the mid-thirties, her finances were becoming strained and she was declared bankrupt in 1937. Nonetheless, she continued to fight Fascism until her death as a result of a fall at her home in Nov 1939.