The New Constitutional Society for Women's Suffrage (NCS) was a British organisation that campaigned for women to be given the vote. It was formed in January 1910 following the election to lobby Liberal members of parliament. The organisation was not militant and it did not support (or decry) the actions of suffragettes. Its objective was "... to unite all suffragists who believe in the anti-Government election policy, who desire to work by constitutional means, and to abstain from public criticism of other suffragists whose conscience leads them to adopt different methods". The NCS dissolved in June 1918 following the passing

Representation of the People Act 1918 The Representation of the People Act 1918 ( 7 & 8 Geo. 5. c. 64) was an act of Parliament passed to reform the electoral system in Great Britain and Ireland. It is sometimes known as the Fourth Reform Act. The act extended the franchise in pa ...

which gave the right to vote to women aged over 30 for the first time.

Notable members

Adeline Chapman, an anti-suffragette, was one of the founding members of the NCS and served as its president and representative on national committees. Helen Ogston an activist, known for her anger, was an employee in 1910. She had been a leading suffragette the year before. Kate Frye was an organiser in East Anglia. She became the secretary of this organisation in 1914 In 1916 they employed Mary Phillips who was another ex-

WSPU The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...

member (amongst others).

Legacy

The organisation ended when some British women were first given the vote in 1918. None of the organisation's papers have survived, but the diary of the organisation's secretary Kate Frye was discovered and the relevant sections have been edited and published.

References

External links

Collection of NCS material
at ''

The Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:New Constitutional 1910 establishments in the United Kingdom First-wave feminism in the United Kingdom Organisations based in London Organizations established in 1910 Women's organisations based in the United Kingdom Social history of the United Kingdom Suffrage organisations in the United Kingdom