Victoria League

The Victoria League for Commonwealth Friendship (1901–present) is a voluntary charitable organisation which connects people from Commonwealth countries. There are currently branches in the UK, Australia and New Zealand with affiliated organisations in Canada and the USA. The Victoria League in the UK had about 500 members in Britain in 2000 and their patron is Queen Elizabeth II. It is one of more than 80 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that promote cooperation and peace within the Commonwealth of Nations. Overseas branches are autonomous, operating within their own countries regulations; however they all share the same history of birth.

The start of the Second Boer War was the catalyst for an outpouring of patriotic support for the British Empire in the Mother Country and in the white dominions and colonies. This affected men and women, but because of the politics of the time was reflected in women founding their own charitable organisations, to build links across the empire with like-minded women and to give practical help in supporting the war effort in way that were considered suitable for Women, such as caring for wounded soldiers and helping by comforting the relations of soldiers killed fighting in the war.

In Canada Margaret Polson Murray was the catalyst for the founding of the Canadian Daughters of the Empire while in South Africa Dorothea Fairbridge was a leading activist in the Guild of Loyal Women. Both organisations sent representatives to Britain to make contacts and to drum up support for the war effort. Fairbridge was a leading socialite of the Cape Colony and was friends with some influential British ladies who had met her while visiting South Africa. Three of these ladies, Violet Markham, Violet Cecil, Edith Lyttelton, would prove instrumental in setting up a new London based organisation. They initially met at 2 Millbank, Westminster (opposite Victoria Tower Gardens — small park on the north bank of the River Thames adjacent the Palace of Westminster) where they agreed to arrange the inaugural meeting of what was to become the Victoria League.

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