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London Metropolitan Archives

NATIONAL UNITED TEMPERANCE COUNCIL


IDENTITY STATEMENT

Reference code(s): GB 0074 ACC/2425

Held at: London Metropolitan Archives

Title: NATIONAL UNITED TEMPERANCE COUNCIL

Date(s): 1895-1984

Level of description: Collection

Extent: 4.34 linear metres

Name of creator(s): National United Temperance Council
London United Temperance Council

CONTEXT

Administrative/Biographical history:

The National United Temperance Council (NUTC) was founded in July 1896 at a National Conference of County United Temperance Councils. The aim of both County and National United Temperance Councils was to consolidate support amongst various temperance organisations for temperance legislation and to promote the temperance movement in general.

The London United Temperance Council (LUTC) was the second County United Temperance Council to be formed (after Essex) in January 1895 and the NUTC followed its example in terms of constitutional structure and aims (see ACC/2425/1 and ACC/ 2425/25-28 for early constitutions).

From 1932 to 1948 the NUTC and LUTC were amalgamated. When the LUTC was reconstituted as a separate organisation in 1948 (mainly in response to London County Council's plans to license sale of alcohol in London parks) they shared a joint secretary and treasurer with the NUTC. From the 1950's, records of LUTC meetings can be found among minutes of NUTC meetings. Both the NUTC and the LUTC were financed by subscriptions, donations, legacies, association fees (from affiliated temperance societies), collections and sales.

The early years of the NUTC involved the organising of campaigns for Sunday closing and for legislation to prevent the sale of alcohol to children. Both the NUTC and the LUTC were active in lobbying M.P.s, local public bodies, county councillors and school boards concerning temperance issues and in monitoring and opposing applications for licences at Brewster sessions. They organised demonstration marches for all age groups, organised temperance missions held in hired halls, ran advertising campaigns, and published and distributed temperance literature including their own magazine, The United Temperance Gazette. The NUTC and LUTC also provided various social (and fund-raising) activities for their members such as annual fetes and prize competitions for reciting, essay-writing and singing. In later years, issues such as non-alcoholic communion wine, sale of alcohol in London parks and licensing in airports commanded their attention.

Memorial Hall in Farringdon Street, EC1 was the headquarters of both the NUTC and the LUTC until 1949 when they were bequeathed a house at 165 CIapham Road, Stockwell, by Dr. Annie McCall. This was a four storey Georgian terraced house. The majority of surviving NUTC papers from this date concern the maintenance of this property in terms of repairs and tenancy. It was sold in 1985 to the tenants except for two rooms. In 1987 the NUTC moved to smaller premises in Regent Street.

At present the NUTC continues to be funded by individual subscription and continues to give advice to the public on opposing licence applications.

CONTENT

Scope and content/abstract:

The collection contains minutes of the NUTC and the LUTC from their foundation to the 1950's. Files date from the 1940's to 1984. It also contains a minute book of the Sunday Closing Special Campaign Committee (SCSCC) which transferred its work to the NUTC in 1903 (this Committee may have been appointed by the NUTC). The secretary of the NUTC (and LUTC) also served as one of the two general secretaries on the SCSCC. A minute book of the Free Churches Pledge Signing Campaign Committee (FCPSCC) appears in the collection. This committee was dissolved in 1911. Representatives of the NUTC and LUTC attended meetings which were held in Memorial Hall, Farringdon Street, and in 1911 the secretary of the NUTC and LUTC was also secretary of the FCPSCC.

A minute book of the Society of Cogers appears in the collection probably because an NUTC member, H. Weightman (later NUTC secretary and treasurer), was acting secretary of the society c.1919.

The recording of financial income and expenditure into ledgers was not always done. A number of blank ledgers deposited suggest the aim of entering such information, but it was never achieved. An almost complete set of audited, annual summary accounts from 1911 to 1975 provide the bulk of information on finance.

ACCESS AND USE

Language/scripts of material: English

System of arrangement:

There are so many connections between the NUTC and LUTC that it is impossible to separate all their records successfully. Minutes are listed separately but all other LUTC papers (where they survive) will be found under NUTC headings.

The division between secretary's papers and treasurer's papers is not always a clear one. This is for two main reasons: 1) in the 1950's the functions of secretary and treasurer were executed by one person and the distinction between the two became less defined and 2) from the late 1950's certain functions, such as routine correspondence with subscribers, transferred from secretary to treasurer.

All files containing similar information have been kept together under their relevant sub-headings for ease of description. Secretary's papers are arranged in sections which are not completely exclusive of each other.

If a document pertaining to a particular issue is required, it may be worth checking each section at the relevant date. Correspondence is generally very routine. Routine subscription letters have been preserved as an indication of membership since no consolidated, comprehensive record of membership exists.

London United Temperance Council ACC/2425/001-024;
National United Temperance Council minutes ACC/2425/025-052;
UTC secretary's papers ACC/2425/053-143;
UTC treasurer's papers, 1897-1975 ACC/2425/144-292;
UTC treasurer's papers, 1974-1984 ACC/2425/293-300;
Printed matter ACC/2425/301-324;
Memorabilia ACC/2425/325-327;
Sunday Closing Special Campaign Committee ACC/2425/328;
Free Churches Pledge Signing Committee ACC/2425/329-331;
Ye Antient Society of Cogers ACC/2425/332-335.

Conditions governing access:

These records are available for public inspection, although records containing personal information are subject to access restrictions under the UK Data Protection Act, 1998.

Conditions governing reproduction:

Copyright to these records rests with the depositor.

Physical characteristics:

Fit

Finding aids:

Please see online catalogues at: http://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm

ARCHIVAL INFORMATION

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Records retained for the compilation of the audited accounts have been discarded. These include endorsed cheques, cheque-book stubs, receipt stubs, bank paying-in books, savings books and some petty cash notebooks. Bank account statements and duplicate material have also been weeded from the collection.

Archival history:

Immediate source of acquisition:

Records deposited in May 1987, with a further accession in 1999.

ALLIED MATERIALS

DESCRIPTION NOTES Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: June to August 2010.


INDEX ENTRIES
Subjects
Alcohol | Alcohols | Organic chemicals | Chemicals
Alcohol abuse | Diseases | Pathology
Alcohol education | Health education
Campaign groups | Groups
Licensing (alcohol) | Licensing | Law
Temperance movements | Political movements
Temperance societies | Societies | Associations | Organizations

Personal names

Corporate names
London United Temperance Council
National United Temperance Council

Places
London | England | UK | Western Europe | Europe