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

History

Foundation

The Society for the Promotion of Permanent and Universal Peace was founded after a meeting at the premises of William Allen, in Plough Court, Lombard Street in the City of London on 14 June 1816. Following the Battle of Waterloo the previous year and the decades of European conflict with Napoleon Bonaparte, it advocated a gradual, proportionate, and simultaneous disarmament of all nations and the principle of arbitration. Many of the founders came together under the banner of Christian abolitionism and a number were Quakers. The society in London helped establish auxiliary societies in various cities and towns across the United Kingdom; for instance at Doncaster and Leeds, Swansea and Neath, Newcastle, Birmingham, Liverpool, Bath, Bristol, Coventry, Exeter, Darlington, Leicester, Hull, Plymouth and Southampton; to name but a few. It published a monthly journal, The Herald of Peace, which was first printed in 1819. On 25 May 1836 the society held their twentieth anniversary meeting at the Exeter Hall on London's Strand. In 1843 they hosted the first International Peace Congress. Between 1817 and 1833 the society issued twelve tracts for its membership, which ran to multiple editions:

Later 19th century

In 1842, the Peace Society produced 4,000 additional copies of the earlier that year published book War and Peace: the Evils of the First with a Plan for Securing the Last by William Jay for the 1842 Conference of the Friends of Peace. Lewis Appleton organized the International Arbitration and Peace Association (IAPA) in 1880. Unlike the Peace Society the IAPA accepted defensive war, was not restricted to Christians and claimed to be international. It also allowed women on the executive committee. In the spring of 1882, E. M. Southey, the main founder of the Ladies Peace Association, persuaded her group to disaffiliate from the Peace Society and join the IAPA. The Quaker Priscilla Hannah Peckover played a central role in organizing a new ladies auxiliary of the Peace Society that was launched on 12 July 1882. During the 1880s the Peace Society stagnated. Its Ladies' Peace Association was more dynamic, and claimed 9,217 members by the summer of 1885, of which 4,000 belonged to Peckover's Wisbech group.

Early 20th century

The society's failure to condemn the outbreak of the First World War in 1914 resulted in internal divisions and led to the resignation of its leader, Rev. William Evans Darby. His successor, Rev. Herbert Dunnico, led the society's unsuccessful campaign for peace negotiations. In 1930 the Peace Society merged with the International Christian Peace Fellowship and was renamed the International Peace Society. At sometime thereafter, with the Second World War looming and growing public unease towards British government policies of appeasement, it became defunct.

Members

Founder members

As listed in The Origins of War Prevention by Martin Ceadel, the founding dozen in 1816 were:

Other notable members and associates

• George William Alexander - Quaker, abolitionist and philanthropist • Richard Dykes Alexander - Quaker, banker, friend of Thomas Clarkson • Henry Andrews - Botanist and engraver • Jonathan Backhouse Jr. - Quaker, banker and abolitionist • Thomas Bell - Zoologist and dental surgeon • Jeremy Bentham - Social reformer and philosopher • Samuel Bowly - Quaker and abolitionist • John Bowring - Jeremy Bentham's editor and Governor of Hong Kong • John Bright - Quaker, politician • Hugh Stowell Brown - Leader of the Liverpool auxiliary • James Silk Buckingham - Journalist, traveller and author • John Burnet - Pastor and abolitionist • Elihu Burritt - American diplomat, lecturer and social activist • Rev. John Campbell - Congregationalist minister • Gino Capponi - Italian statesman and historian • Robert Lucas Chance - Founder of Chance Brothers glassworks • Robert Charleton - Quaker, pin-manufacturer, philanthropist • Richard Cobden - Politician, campaigner for Free Trade • James Cropper - Philanthropist and abolitionist • William Dillwyn - Quaker and abolitionist • Benjamin Meggot Forster - Botanist, abolitionist and brother of T. F. Forster • Josiah Forster - Quaker, teacher and abolitionist • Thomas Furley Forster - Botanist and abolitionist • William Forster - Quaker, abolitionist, brother of Josiah Forster • Samuel Fox - Quaker, philanthropist, abolitionist • Elizabeth Fry - Quaker, prison and social reformer • James Gambier, 1st Baron Gambier - Senior naval officer, war veteran • Charles Gilpin - Quaker, publisher, politician • Joseph John Gurney - Quaker, banker and brother of Samuel Gurney • Samuel Gurney - Quaker, banker, philanthropist and abolitionist • Christopher Newman Hall - Nonconformist divine • Elizabeth Hanbury - Quaker and philanthropist • Rev. James Hargreaves - Clergyman • Rev. John Webster Hawksley - Rector of Turvey, Knotting and Souldrop • Luke Howard - Quaker, later Plymouth Brethren, scientist • Alfred Illingworth - Liberal politician • Keshub Chunder Sen - Hindu philosopher and social reformer • Sir Wilfrid Lawson - Radical politician • Joseph Jackson Lister - Quaker and scientist • Henry Pease - Liberal politician, younger brother of Joseph Pease (later a President of the Society) • Joseph Pease - Uncle of Joseph Pease (later President of the Society) • Richard Phillips - Quaker and chemist • Jacob Post - Quaker and abolitionist • Richard Rathbone - Merchant and abolitionist • Theophilus Redwood - Pharmacist • Thomas Richardson - Quaker, businessman and investor • William Russell - Unitarian and merchant • John Scoble - Abolitionist • Rev. William Stephenson - Clergyman in Fobbing, West Thurrock • Joseph Sturge - Quaker, abolitionist, founded the Birmingham auxiliary • Thomas Sturge - Merchant, social reformer, son of Thomas Sturge the Elder • George Thompson - Abolitionist and anti-slavery activist • Rev. Robert Vaughan - Congregationalist minister • John Warner - Bellfounder and metalworker

Chairmen/Presidents

Secretaries

Treasurers

Records of the Peace Society

There are also records at the Savings Bank Museum, in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, Scotland, as the founder of the first parish savings bank Henry Duncan wrote on this subject.