BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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effective in campaigning for the General Election "when nearly all the
Executive Committee were engaged in looking up the out-voters, and in
this way rendered very valuable assistance to the Unionist Party."8
Other key efforts included the recruitment in February, 1898 of
720 members of the LGC residing in the vicinity of London to parti­
cipate in a canvassing and conveyancing drive associated with the LCC
election.
While the response was not nearly so bountiful, the
solicitation points to the overwhelming metropolitan character of the
LGC.
During the General Election of 1900, thirty-six members of the
LGC, out of a total membership of 1,621, were responsible for can­
vassing twenty-seven constituencies and maintaining registration and
removal records on some 890 out-voters.
Their efforts prompted the
thanks of Captain Middleton.9
In addition to the extensive political efforts, the LGC was
also responsible for a variety of social and quasi-philanthropic
functions.
The Ladies' executive straddled older, time honored,
aristocratic traditions of providing for the less privileged through
the newly burgeoning role of the female political activist.
The LGC
sponsored the Beresford Hope Choir, later renamed the Primrose League
Choral Society, which performed at many metropolitan League events.10
8
9
Ibid., 29 November 1895; 7 February 1896.
Ibid., 11 February 1898; 2 November 1900; 16 November 1900.
10 Financing for the choir first appears in the LGC budget
statement of 1888, a copy of which is contained in the LGC Executive
Committee Minutes of 22 February 1889. Ibid., 16 May 1891; 22 July
1892; 4 November 1892; 18 November 1892; 2 June 1893; 30 June 1893; 6
November 1896; 20 May 1898.