BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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The association was conceived as a sort of Masonic lodge,
secret and select in character and designed to assist Lord Randolph
Churchill in his bid for the Conservative party leadership. It
gradually took shape in a series of meetings held in the early fall
during which Lord Randolph Churchill, M.P.; Sir Henry Drummond Wolff,
M.P.; John Eldon Gorst, Q.C., M.P.; and Sir Alfred Slade, Bt.; framed
the general principles and organization of the League.
On 17 November
1883 it was initiated in the card room of the Carlton Club.9
The Primrose Tory League, as it was originally titled, was an
ancillary organ to the Fourth party and the National Union.
Of the
four founding members, the first three named individuals were key
participants in the Fourth party.
All were active supporters of
Churchill on the Council of the National Union during his quest for its
prominence within the Conservative party hierarchy (1883-1884).10 At
the initial meeting the four affirmed their loyalty to the association
through an oath devised by Wolff which committed them to the
maintenance of religion, the "Estates of the Realm," the British
empire, the sovereign, and secrecy.
I, A. B., declare on my honour and faith that I will
devote my best ability to the maintenance of Religion,
of the Estates of the Realm, and of the Imperial
Ascendancy of Great Britain; that I will keep secret
all matters that may come to my knowledge as a member
of the Primrose Tory League; and that consistently with
9
Harold E. Gorst, "The Story of the Fourth Party," The
Nineteenth Century and After (July-December, 1902), p. 1044. Winston
Spencer Churchill, Lord Randolph Churchill (London: Macmillan Comp.,
1906), pp. 256-58. Robb, The Primrose League, pp. 36-38.
10 "National Union Annual Conference Minutes," 23 July 1884;
NUA 2/1/3.