The League of Nations Union in Cheltenham, 1920-45: charting the terra incognita. A case study of the workings of a League of Nations Union local branch and popular participation in international liberalism.

Courtenay, Adrian Hugh (2025). The League of Nations Union in Cheltenham, 1920-45: charting the terra incognita. A case study of the workings of a League of Nations Union local branch and popular participation in international liberalism. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

This thesis documents the development, activities, and membership of the Cheltenham branch of the League of Nations Union in the 1920s and 1930s. In the years following the First World War, the LNU became a mass movement with a national membership that peaked at 406,868. Alongside the London headquarters, over three hundred local branches were established nationally. To fully understand the impact and growth of British views on international liberalism and global humanitarianism, historians must also pay attention to the nature and activities of those groups and individuals who served (or ignored) it at grassroots level.
This thesis breaks new ground by focusing on the work of one branch rather than on the national politics and leadership of the LNU. By placing the organisation’s local context and membership at the centre of analysis, the thesis provides a grassroots case study of the work of an important non-government organisation. It also offers an immediate and tangible example of how the LNU engaged with a wider audience and was entwined with associational and political life in an English town. It presents an alternative means of understanding how the political education of the nation in the debate around foreign policy developed between 1918 to 1939.
As a latitudinal study, the thesis traces the history of the Cheltenham branch from the development and success of its early years to the growing disinterest and collapse in the thirties. Revisionist historians have argued that the LNU’s mass membership led to greater levels of democratization and active engagement in a political culture around foreign policy. Others suggest that for the middle classes (who made up the bulk of LNU membership) ‘formal association’ with such groups was synonymous with friendship. The result was often a passive membership in search of education and entertainment. This study of the CLNU underscores how these interpretations are not mutually exclusive: the shifting balance between these coexisting positions depended on events which challenged the nation’s foreign policy and perceptions of its standing in the world.
Drawing upon archival material, local and national newspaper reports, and a prosopographical survey of digitised genealogical data, the thesis reconstructs the membership and activities of a working portrait of a single LNU branch over two decades. In the absence of a surviving branch archive, the thesis stitches together these fragments and places them in the wider context of Cheltenham’s civic life and politics. In so doing, it offers a proximity to the motivation and loyalty (and at times, fickleness) of ordinary men and women whose voices have often been overlooked or have been inaccessible to historians working on the LNU and similar organisations in the 1920s and 1930s.
The thesis is in four main sections. The first (chapter 1) places the investigation within a wider historiography of the League of Nations Union. It examines how historians have viewed its importance as a mass movement, then sets out the strengths and merits of the case study methodology and sources that underpin the thesis. The thesis questions the notion that the LNU acted as a catalyst for democratising in the inter-war period. The second section (chapter 2) traces the development of the CLNU over two decades, highlighting key moments – notably its hosting of the LNU’s National Conference in 1932 and its local organisation of the Peace Ballot in 1934. It also introduces (chapter 3) my detailed prosopographical study of the branch membership lists. Alongside a quantitative analysis of the data, the thesis also presents detailed case studies of individual members of the CLNU. These chapters argue that despite its popular base the Union was dominated by national and local elites.
The third section (chapters 4-7) situates the work of the LNU within the wider local social, cultural, and political context through four thematic studies of the CLNU’s relations with local political parties, education and youth, women, and the churches. This approach considers why, and to what extent, these groups associated with the LNU. Whilst the thesis maintains a strong local focus, it also reflects on the national behaviours of such groups. The thesis argues that whilst support for the Union was non-partisan, it was drawn mainly from middle class groups and institutions.
The final section (chapter 8) identifies opposition faced by the CLNU and its implications for the branch. The thesis here argues that despite the copious amounts of propaganda and literature provided by the Union, it encountered significant opposition and competition from many other quarters. The thesis concludes (chapter 9) by situating the case study within the wider debate around the growth of democracy in the interwar period. It also considers some broader implications as to how a pressure group needs to act if it is to remain sustainable and effective. The argument here is that there was a significant disconnect between the leadership of the Union and its branch members which suggests that for a mass movement, membership numbers alone were illusory. Its development was prone to both internal and external weaknesses. With respect to the former, the LNU drew support from a relatively narrow section of society and failed to make significant inroads into working class and Labour voting groups. A perceived heavy-handed over-directiveness from the national leadership also created a membership that felt increasingly redundant other than for the purpose of paying their subscription.
Over two decades external circumstances also presented new challenges for the LNU. After the slaughter of the First World War, there was a broad sympathy of support for an international movement looking to avoid future wars through diplomacy. For example, many of those who joined the CLNU had personal experience of loss and were prepared to judge war as a bad thing. However, despite its initial success in enthusing and cultivating members, the LNU failed to adapt to meet new geopolitical threats and mobilise local communities. By the 1930s there needed to be a national response to those dictatorships that threatened democracy – even if this meant resorting to force of arms. In this context, it became increasingly difficult for the LNU to justify its cause and answer its critics.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):