Daniel Pitt: Back in the day a flowering of Conservatism came from a bloom of primroses

Dr Daniel Pitt is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Buckingham. 

Last month, I attended the Margaret Thatcher Centre’s Freedom Festival held at the University of Buckingham. One debate got me thinking back to the Victorian era of politics. I started thinking about the largest, most successful, and most feared voluntary political organisation: the Primrose League. But also, about declining membership numbers. Most people do not join political parties; membership is rare, as only 0.2 per cent of the British public belongs to one.

Next week, on the 19^th of April, it is Primrose Day, which has traditionally been a day for commemorating the memory and myth of one of our greatest leaders, Benjamin Disraeli. We can learn plenty from it. From mass membership participation, blending of social and political life to motivate members and providing opportunities for up-and-coming statesmen.

This was done by donning primroses and displaying them at prominent places associated with Disraeli across the country, including at his tomb in Hughenden. The primrose became synonymous with Disraeli as it was considered to be his favourite flower.

Queen Victoria used to send him primroses from Osborne, the estate Victoria and Albert purchased in 1845. Disraeli used to keep them on his dining table, and he also used to grow them at his estate at Hughenden.

Primroses were mentioned in at least two of his books, Coningsby and Lothair. In Lothair, Lord St. Jerome says, “primroses make a capital salad.” His wife does not approve and, understandably, calls him a “Barbarian”.

Lord Randolph Churchill, Winston’s father, said of Benjamin Disraeli’s career: “Failure, failure, failure, partial success, renewed failure, ultimate and complete triumph.” Lord Randolph had more than a hand in creating the “ultimate and complete triumph” after Disraeli’s death in 1881. The creation, alongside three of his friends, in 1883 of the Primrose League was part of this “complete triumph”. During its time, the league provided a practical vehicle for the veneration of Disraeli.

Lord Randolph held the Number 1 membership card, which his son later revelled in. Membership saw a spectacular growth, and at its zenith, it had around (according to them) two million members, larger than the Conservative Party, when the political electorate was around 7.7 million. No other voluntary membership political organisation could compete with its size and its activities, and the Liberals feared its “ceaseless activity”.

In a book published four years after the creation of the league, it stated:

“This creation of a Tory democracy was raised from the spirit of emulation and honour of all classes of the genuine English volunteer type known to our forefathers as chivalry. Hence the Primrose League was formed on the basis of the old orders of knighthood.”

If the Primrose League is remembered at all now, it is usually for those aspects of it that were associated with “old orders of knighthood” and its heraldry rather than “the spirit of emulation and honour of all classes of the genuine English volunteer type”. The heraldry was splendid, with wonderful names for their members, such as Primrose Dames for women, Knights for men, Associates for mass members, and Buds for children. They, of course, had their glorious badges and ribbons as well as hymns. The Buds had a wonderful hymn called the Hymn of the Primrose Buds, which went like this:

Children of Empire,

Primrose Buds are we,

Marching, ever marching,

On to victory,

Wearing still the emblem,

Just a tiny flower,

From our native woodland,

Every joyful hour.

It continued to state the pledge of the Primrose Buds:

We a pledge have taken,

Ever to be true,

To our King and Country,

And the Empire too –

True to our religion,

Ever serving Him,

Who is loved by angels,

And the Seraphim.

The league campaigned hard for and socialised members in its core principles of support for the Crown, Constitution and Empire, as well as the importance of religion and honour in society. It provided unity and dialogue between the classes and the sexes and spread political loyalty amongst the general population.

It was, to use the modern parlance, an inclusive organisation. It was the first political organisation to provide equal responsibility to men and women, and about half of its members were women, which paved the way to female suffrage. It was also the first society to provide political education for women and to encourage women to become political educators too.

The Primrose League also had a working-class majority. But even broad churches require limits to their inclusivity, and “atheists and enemies of the British Empire” were not permitted to join its ranks. The Conservatives can learn from this that it can be an inclusive organisation in terms of class, sex, etc., but never in terms of conservatism itself.

There are similarities between the Primrose Leagues’ activities and its Habitations (branches) and local Conservative Associations today.

Primrose Leagues blended political and social life to keep their members active. The social calendar was filled with garden parties, fêtes at stately homes, open-air festivals and concerts, which provided continuity of activity between elections as well as at election time.

Parties need to provide platforms for young buds to bloom, as Disraeli put it, “the youth of a nation are the trustees of posterity”. The Primrose League certainly provided these platforms. Winston Churchill’s first official political speech was delivered at a Primrose League meeting in Bath in July 1897. Another Conservative Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, founded a branch of the Primrose League in his beloved Worcestershire, and his beliefs, his romantic vision and imagination were shaped by Disraeli and the Primrose League.

We must keep the cost of membership down, provide social events for members to enable like-minded Tories to meet, and we must provide platforms for serious but enjoyable political participation. Indeed, we can learn all this and more from the Primrose League.