Edwardian Ladies and Imperial Power 9781472599872

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Organized Ladies

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7. Eleanor Percy-Taylor, who had made a name for herself as a Victoria League lecturer and proved herself as an administrator by standing in for Meriel Talbot as secretary during her WorldTourofl909tol911. 8. See Louisa Knightley's journal, 27 April 1910, 20 February 1911, 13 November 1911, 4 December 1911,8 March 1912 and 3 May 1912. Lady Knightley eventually played a key role in mending fences between die CIL and the BWEA, by offering to become a CIL vicepresident after a majority of the BWEA Council had agreed that Caroline Grosvenor 'should retire' from that body. As she commented with her usual wry humour, 'it was perhaps as well diat Mrs Joyce was not there' at the decisive meeting on 3 May 1912. 9. See the Primrose League Ladies' Grand Council Executive Committee Minute Book, meetings of 18 January 1887, 11 February 1887 and 11 March 1887. PL10. Bodleian Library. 10. Ibid., 11 November 1887. 11. Victoria League First Annual Report, 1901-02 (1902). 12. See Appendix 1. 13. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes reveal the behind-the-scenes juggling which succeeded in averting divisive elections while at the same time preserving a balance of Liberal and Conservative leading ladies; for example, on 11 May 1906, when surplus Conservative candidates were tactfully weeded out on the basis of poor attendance during the previous year. 14. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 19 July 1904. 15. A. Money, History of the Girls' Friendly Society (London: GFS 'L'Envoi', 1897). 16. Heath-Stubbs, p. 21. 17. SeeB. Harrison, 'For Church, Queen and Family: The Girls' Friendly Society 1874—1920', Past and Present, 1973,61: 120. 18. Friendly Work, July 1905. 19. Victoria League First Annual Report, 1901-02 (1902). 20. Victoria League Sixth Annual Report, 1907 (1908). 21. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 21 January 1911. 22. Victoria League Eleventh Annual Report, 1912 (1913). 23. The Imperial Colonist, 111/30. June 1904. 24. See correspondence from Alicia Cecil, on behalf of SAX/SACS, to the Johannesburg ladies' committee receiving its emigrants, between December 1902 and November 1903. South African Colonisation Society, 3/1-2. Fawcett Library. These letters vividly reflect the stresses of attempting simultaneously to satisfy the Colonial Office, Lord Milner, the SAX/SACS committee and the Johannesburg committee. 25. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 21 May 1901, 7 June 1901 and 21 June 1901. 26. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 'preliminary meeting' on 2 April 1901. 27. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 21 June 1901. 28. See Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 3 May 1906, which record open conflict between the two Leagues over the establishment of competing branches in Manchester. 29. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 12 February 1909. 30. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 29 November 1906. 31. See correspondence between Violet Cecil and Rudyard Kipling during 1910. VM44. Bodleian Library. 32. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 17 October 1910. 33. Victoria League Executive Committee Minutes, 20 February 1912. 34. Minutes of the Royal Colonial Institute's 'Joint Committee with the Victoria League and Other Bodies 1913—19*. Royal Commonwealth Society Archives. Cambridge University Library. The first pair of half-yearly reports covered the six-month period from January to June 1913.