The Girls' Friendly Society

The Girls' Friendly Society (also known by their program name GFS Platform, or just GFS) is a philanthropic society that empowers girls and young women, encouraging them to develop their full potential through programs that provide training, confidence building, and other educational opportunities. It was established by a group of Anglicans in England in 1875 to address, through Christian values, the problems of working-class out-of-wedlock pregnancies. As M. E. Townsend expressed it in a letter of 1879: "[We] are fighting one of the greatest battles the world has ever seen--the battle for the purity of womanhood, for the possibility of virtuous Christian maidenhood." As well as addressing the issue of out-of-wedlock pregnancy of working-class girls, GFS soon grew into a support organization for unmarried girls and young women who wished to better themselves.

In May 1874, the Reverend Thomas Vincent Fosbery (chaplain to Bishop Samuel Wilberforce), together with Mary Elizabeth Townsend (1841-1918),Catharine Tait (1819-1878), Elizabeth Browne (wife of the bishop of Winchester), and Jane Senior (1828-1877), met at Lambeth Palace and agreed on the basis for establishing the Girls' Friendly Society, which officially began its work on 1 January 1875. "The original rough plan of the Society's work and aim was written down in pencil in a tiny notebook in 1872," Mary Elizabeth Townsend wrote in 1882 recalling her original concept. She shared her concept with Fosbery who had encouraged her in her previous charitable work with working-class women. Fosbery introduced her to the older women with whom they formed the original steering committee. Mary Elizabeth Townsend was the first president of the GFS and served as such through 1882. She was succeeded by Lady Grey who served from 1883 through 1889, when Townsend again resumed the presidency from 1890 through 1892.Mary Sidgwick Benson, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, was president from 1893 through 1895.

The GFS was set up to be non-sectarian; however, it utilized the infrastructure of the Church of England with parish, deanery, and diocesan groups. Its central office was in London as befit a national organization. Originally it was open to unmarried girls fourteen and older, but by 1879 it began to admit girls as young as eight years old. The core values of the GFS aimed at high moral standards for its members; they attempted to supply "for every working girl of unblemished character a friend in a class above her own."

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