BRITISH CONSERVATISM AND THE PRIMROSE LEAGUE ... - ideals

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for a separate organizational
The result was a decrease in the powers
and influence accorded the League as females increasingly turned to the
National Union and Conservative Associations as the appropriate sphere
in which to exert their growing political influence.
In many respects the declining role of the Primrose League was
foreshadowed by developments in Scotland.
While the SGC had
encountered difficulties in sustaining funds and members since the late
1890's, it was the First World War which dealt the most debilitating
blow.
By March of 1920, only five Habitations remained throughout all
of Scotland, a base insufficient to sustain the SGC.
The organization
was disbanded two months later.22
Operations of the Primrose League in England, although of a
diminished significance after 1914, continued to play some part in
political life through the 1920's.23 The greatest blow to the fortunes
of the Primrose League ultimately proved to be the legislation passed
in 1918 and 1928 enfranchising women.
The Representation of the
People's Act (1918) extended the franchise to all male occupiers over
twenty-one.
Women who were the wives of occupiers and single females
21 Ramsden, The Age of Balfour and Baldwin, p. 250.
1920.
22 Scottish Branch Minute Book, No. 2, 2 March 1920; 11 May
23 it seems significant that no mention of the Primrose League
is provided by Ramsden in his study of the Conservative party beyond
the 1920's. Ramsden, The Age of Balfour and Baldwin, p. 250.
Similarly, Henry Page Croft, who served as Chancellor in 1928, was one
of the last politicians to regard the office and organization with
great esteem. Despite his assessment, Croft's impression must be
qualified by the knowledge that he himself failed to obtain prominence
within the inner circles of the Conservative party. Croft, My Life of
Strife, p. 185.