Mutual Aid - The Evolution of Friendly Societies in Britain
David G Green (1993)
Director of the Health and Welfare Unit, Institute of Economic Affairs
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In this paper David Green briefly describes the evolution of one of the most
significant working class welfare movements every to have emerged in Britain -
the friendly societies.
These were self-governing mutual benefit associations founded by manual and
skilled workers to provide against hard times - sickness, accident, old age,
death and support to widows and orphans.
They strongly distinguished their guiding philosophy from philanthropy which lay
at the heart of charitable work. The mutual benefit association was not run by
one set of people with the intention of helping another separate group, it was
an association of individuals pledged to help each other when the occasion
arose. Any assistance was not a matter of largesse but of entitlement, earned by
the regular contributions paid into the common fund by every member and
justified by the obligation to do the same for other members if hardship came
their way.
They began to gain prominence as local clubs in the mid to late 18th century,
meeting in the evening after work, often in the back room of a public house and
holding their common fund in a wooden chest or strong-box. However, by the
beginning of the 20th century they had grown in scale to number more than 26,870
registered societies with some 6.6 million members.
Over time many of the smaller societies either merged or affiliated into
national federations with carefully managed investments. Estimates indicate that
around another 2.4 million workers were members of unregistered friendly
societies. If these assumptions are valid, then 75 percent or more of the then
12 million workforce must have been covered by some form of voluntary provision.
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