The Rationalist Press Association (RPA) was founded in 1899 by Charles Albert Watts, the son of the prominent freethinker Charles Watts, to “assist in securing the amendment of the law which sanctions the confiscation of property left for anti-theological purpose, and to promote the issuing, advertising, and circulation of publication devoted Freethought and Advanced Religious [...]
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By tradition the Leicester Secular Society dates its formation to 1851, although an earlier “Rational Society” branch is mentioned in No.9 of The Movement edited by G. J. Holyoake dated February 10th 1844.
Beginnings
A small group of activists probably met regularly but formal meetings, advertised in The Reasoner and The National reformer in 1853, 1861, 1862 and 1867, [...]
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The Chartist movement sought universal suffrage.
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the UK during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1850. It takes its name from the People’s Charter of 1838, which stated the six main aims of the movement as:
A vote for every man twenty-one years of age, of sound [...]
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The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, known also as The Royal Society, is a learned society for science that was founded in 1660 and is the oldest society of its kind still in existence.
A number of notable humanists have been members of The Royal Society including:
T.H. Huxley (president from 1883-1885)
Charles [...]
Categories: Organisations and periodicals
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The British Humanist Association (BHA) is an organisation which promotes humanism and represents ‘people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious beliefs.’
Foundation
The BHA was founded in 1896 by American Stanton Coit as the Union of Ethical Societies, which brought together existing ethical societies in Britain.
It became the British Humanist Association in 1967, [...]
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The National Secular Society (NSS) is a British campaigning organisation that promotes secularism.
The NSS was founded in 1866 with Charles Bradlaugh as President and Charles Watts as secretary.
There were a number of secularist groups around the UK and they joined up to coordinate and strengthen their campaigns. The word secularism was coined by George Holyoake [...]
Categories: Organisations and periodicals, activist
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Owenites were those followers of Robert Owen a social reformer and one of the founders of socialism and the cooperative movement.
In the 1850s the Owenites adopted secularism. Notable secularist Owenites included:
Josiah Gimson
Henry Hetherington
George Jacob Holyoake
Charles Southwell who was an Owenite ’socialist missionary’
Categories: Organisations and periodicals