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 society founded on 14 June 1816 for the promotion of permanent and universal peace

Peace

Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...

; it advocated a gradual, proportionate, and simultaneous disarmament

Disarmament

Disarmament is the act of reducing, limiting, or abolishing weapons. Disarmament generally refers to a country's military or specific type of weaponry. Disarmament is often taken to mean total elimination of weapons of mass destruction, such as nuclear arms...

 of all nation

Nation

A nation may refer to a community of people who share a common language, culture, ethnicity, descent, and/or history. In this definition, a nation has no physical borders. However, it can also refer to people who share a common territory and government irrespective of their ethnic make-up...

s and the principle of arbitration

Arbitration

Arbitration, a form of alternative dispute resolution , is a legal technique for the resolution of disputes outside the courts, where the parties to a dispute refer it to one or more persons , by whose decision they agree to be bound...

.
The Society in London established Auxiliary Societies in various cities and towns in the United Kingdom: for instance at Doncaster and Leeds. The Society's failure to condemn the outbreak of World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

in 1914 resulted in internal divisions and led to the resignation of its leader, William Evans Derby. His successor, Revd.
Herbert Dunnico

Herbert Dunnico

Rev Sir Herbert Dunnico was a British Baptist minister, leading Freemason and Labour Party politician....

, led the society's unsuccessful campaign for peace
negotiations.

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

Presidents

• Joseph Pease - Quaker politician; President, 1860–1872

Secretaries

• Evan Rees (?–1821) - Secretary
• Nun Morgan Harry - Secretary, ?–1842
• John Jefferson - Congregational pastor; Secretary, 1842–1848
• Henry Richard
  Henry Richard
  Rev. Henry Richard MP , "the Apostle of Peace", was a Congregational minister and Welsh Member of Parliament, 1868-88. The son of the Rev...
  
   - Congregational pastor and politician; Secretary, 1848–1885
• W. Evans Darby - Secretary, 1885–1915
• Herbert Dunnico
  Herbert Dunnico
  Rev Sir Herbert Dunnico was a British Baptist minister, leading Freemason and Labour Party politician....
  
   - Secretary, 1915–?

Founding members

• William Allen
  William Allen (Quaker)
  William Allen FRS, FLS was an English scientist and philanthropist who opposed slavery and engaged in schemes of social and penal improvement in early nineteenth century England.-Early life:...
  
  - Quaker philanthropist; founding member
• Rev. Thomas Harper - founding member (Obituary in The Herald of Peace 1831, p. 528)

Non-founding members

• John Bowring
  John Bowring
  Sir John Bowring, KCB was an English political economist, traveller, miscellaneous writer, polyglot, and the 4th Governor of Hong Kong.- Early life :...
  
   - Bentham's editor, governor of Hong Kong
• John Bright
  John Bright
  John Bright , Quaker, was a British Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with Richard Cobden in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League. He was one of the greatest orators of his generation, and a strong critic of British foreign policy...
  
   - Quaker politician
• Richard Cobden
  Richard Cobden
  Richard Cobden was a British manufacturer and Radical and Liberal statesman, associated with John Bright in the formation of the Anti-Corn Law League as well as with the Cobden-Chevalier Treaty...
  
  , MP
• Hugh Stowell Brown
  Hugh Stowell Brown
  Hugh Stowell Brown Christian minister and renowned preacher.Hugh Stowell Brown was a preacher, pastor and social reformer in Liverpool in the nineteenth century. His public lectures and work among the poor brought him great renown. On his death a statue was raised to him, one of only three...
  
   - leader of Liverpool branch
• Robert Charleton - Quaker pin manufacturer and Peace Envoy.
• Charles Gilpin
  Charles Gilpin (politician)
  Charles Gilpin was a Quaker, orator, politician, publisher and railway director. Amongst his many causes were the movement to repeal the Corn Laws, to establish world peace through the Peace Society, abolition of the death penalty and the anti-slavery movement, enfranchisement by providing...
  
   - Quaker publisher and later MP
• Joseph Sturge
  Joseph Sturge
  Joseph Sturge , son of a farmer in Gloucestershire, was an English Quaker, abolitionist and activist. He founded the British and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society . He worked throughout his life in Radical political actions supporting pacifism, working-class rights, and the universal emancipation of...
  
   - Quaker abolitionist; founded the Birmingham Auxiliary

Records of the Peace Society

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

See also

• German Peace Society
  German Peace Society
  The German Peace Society was founded in 1892. It still exists and is known as the Deutsche Friedensgesellschaft - Vereinigte KriegsdienstgegnerInnen...
  
   , founded in 1892
• American Peace Society
  American Peace Society
  The American Peace Society is a pacifist group founded upon the initiative of William Ladd, in New York City, May 8, 1828. It was formed by the merging of many state and local societies, from New York, Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, of which the oldest, the New York Peace Society, dated...
  
  , founded in 1828
• New York Peace Society
  New York Peace Society
  The New York Peace Society was the first peace society to be established in the United States. It has had several different incarnations, as it has merged into other organizations or dissolved and then been re-created.- First incarnation :...
  
  , founded in 1815
• International Peace Congress
  International Peace Congress
  International Peace Congress, or International Congress of the Friends of Peace, was the name of a series of international meetings of representatives from peace societies from throughout the world held in various places in Europe from 1843 to 1853...
  
  

Further reading

• Paul Laity The British Peace Movement, 1870-1914, Cambridge University Press, 2001 ISBN 0-19-924835-4, some pages available at GoogleBooks - Chapter 1 concerns the founding of the British Peace Society in 1816.
• The Times, Wednesday, 23 May 1866; p. 12; Issue 25505; col C: THE PEACE SOCIETY.-The 50th anniversary