On 16 October 1896 the leaders of women's suffrage organisations from across Britain met in
Birmingham to discuss merging their individual societies into a single organisation. The NUWSS was formally constituted on 14 October 1897 by the merger of the
National Central Society for Women's Suffrage and the
Central Committee of the National Society for Women's Suffrage, the groups having originally split in 1888. The groups united under the leadership of
Millicent Fawcett, who was the president of the society for over twenty years (1898–1919). Local societies were affiliated as members of the NUWSS, but had a large degree of autonomy. There were 16 affiliates in 1903. The NUWSS admitted men to the organisation, but leaders and decision makers were all women. The organisation was democratic and non-militant, aiming to achieve women's suffrage through peaceful and legal means, in particular by introducing Parliamentary Bills and holding meetings to explain and promote their aims. Its aim was phrased as being "to obtain the parliamentary franchise on the same terms as it is, or may be, granted to men." At the time of the NUWSS's formation, property qualifications were required for men to vote, so the NUWSS stance was controversial among labour and socialist movements. By February 1913, it had spent £60,000 on meetings and propaganda. Many, but by no means all, of the members were middle class, and some were working class. Until 1906, the NUWSS focused on lobbying Parliament and supporting Bills for women's enfranchisement. For the
1906 general election, the group formed committees in each constituency to persuade local parties to select pro-suffrage candidates, with 415 pledges made by candidates. who sold her house in
Didsbury to raise funds. By 1910, suffragists of the NUWSS were becoming sceptical about focusing on petitioning a parliament of men, with a 1910 issue of the
Common Cause stating that: 'We have left off petitioning, because we were sick of it. The "right" to petition is really not unlike the "right" to use a telephone which has been disconnected." However, Fawcett said in a speech in 1911 that their movement was "like a glacier; slow moving but unstoppable".'', 1918In 1913 the NUWSS organised a pilgrimage to London, initiated by
Katherine Harley, younger sister of suffragist
Charlotte Despard. The pilgrimage was disciplined and law abiding and was intended to be in contrast to the militancy of the suffragettes. It culminated in a rally of 50,000 people in
Hyde Park on 26 July 1913, with the hope of
Asquith receiving a deputation. This was successful and Asquith received a deputation on 8 August, the first suffrage deputation since November 1911, but to the disappointment of those involved it did not result in any change to government policy.
Helen Fraser, Gwen Coleman and
Mary Stocks (May 1974 interview) all spoke about the procession in suffrage interviews given to
Brian Harrison. The NUWSS headquarters were at 22 Great Smith Street,
Westminster, London from 1910 to 1918. in 1913 ==Political bias==