Ashton Hall, Lancaster, where the inaugural meeting of Lancaster LNU took place in October 1920
© Janet Nelson
The inaugural meeting of the Lancaster branch of the League of Nations Union, preceded by an organ recital, was held at the Ashton Hall with what was described as ‘a large audience.’ Lord Richard Cavendish took the chair. Local supporters included the Mayor, Alderman Wright, Sir Norval Helme, ex-MP and prominent local businessman and five clergyman, with apologies from other leading Lancastrians. After the speeches, the Mayor proposed a resolution in support of both the League of Nations and the League of Nations Union. Captain Hoste of Wigan appealed for funds towards a national target of £2,000,000. In his opening speech, Lord Richard described the LNU as a ‘network of associations, so that everybody might have the opportunity of supporting the policy for which the League of Nations existed,’ summing up that policy as ‘peace on earth and goodwill to all men.’ The atmosphere created would inhibit any of the country’s war-mongering leaders.
The next to speak was the invited guest, Oswald Mosley, Conservative MP for Harrow. Mosley argued that international peace was essential because not only did war cause economic disaster but technology was now so advanced that another war would be catastrophic. The League of Nations provided a mechanism for maintaining peace, provided that the will of the people supported it. The other speaker, Miss Currey OBE, Assistant Director, WRNS (1), suggested the League’s aim was to encourage everybody to think ‘not from a national but an international basis.’ Lancaster LNU remained in existence until the Second World War.
References/Further Reading:
(1) IWM, in partnership with Findmypast. Assistant Director Muriel Innes Currey, Royal Navy, Women’s Royal Naval Service.
Lancaster Guardian, 9 Oct 1920.