--- title: "Rational and Social | A Glimpse of the West London Ethical Society" date: "2023-12-20T13:22:45+00:00" modified: "2024-03-01T16:07:38+00:00" url: "https://heritage.humanists.uk/exhibition/rational-and-social/" post_id: 8597 --- # Rational and Social | A Glimpse of the West London Ethical Society - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-Minute-book-cover-796x1024.jpg) - Beginnings ---------- In 1891, [Stanton Coit](https://heritage.humanists.uk/stanton-coit/) resigned from his leadership of the [South Place Ethical Society](https://heritage.humanists.uk/south-place-ethical-society/). In the words of [F.J. Gould](https://heritage.humanists.uk/frederick-james-gould/), Coit ‘was a fair-haired American from Ohio’, who ‘preached an admirable Humanist gospel in a happy alternation of smiles and hurricanes’, and his admirers at South Place hoped to find him a new home. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Coit-slipping-scaled-for-exhib.jpg) - On 31 January 1892, as the minute book records, some 50 or 60 of these men and women met at [Leighton Hall](https://heritage.humanists.uk/leighton-hall-neighbourhood-guild/) in Kentish Town, London, to discuss the formation of a new ethical society in central London. - On 21 February, they met again, their names dutifully recorded in the minute book. Among them were prominent figures in the early humanist movement, including Florence A. Law (daughter of forthright secularist [Harriet Law](https://heritage.humanists.uk/harriet-law/)); [Gustav Spiller](https://heritage.humanists.uk/gustav-spiller/) (who would go on to organise the [First Universal Races Congress](https://heritage.humanists.uk/first-universal-races-congress/)); and composer [Emily Josephine Troup](https://heritage.humanists.uk/emily-josephine-troup/). - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-founding-meeting-and-form-scaled-e1709305035136-1024x760.jpg) - On Sunday 26 June 1892, 81 ‘subscribers and sympathisers’ met at Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly to agree aims and discuss progress. It was also announced that [Leslie Stephen](https://heritage.humanists.uk/leslie-stephen/) – first editor of the *Dictionary of National Biography* and father of [Virginia Woolf](https://heritage.humanists.uk/virginia-woolf/) – had joined the Executive Committee, along with the Earl of Dysart (William Tollemache). - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/12/Woolf-and-Stephen-1902-NPG.png)Virginia Woolf; Sir Leslie Stephen by George Charles Beresford, 1902 © National Portrait Gallery, London - It was also resolved that the Society’s Sunday morning lectures would begin in October at Prince’s Hall, where a number of these early meetings had taken place. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Princes-Hall-Illustrated_London_News_14_April_1883_0012-1024x683.jpg)Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly in 1883 (doorway visible on the left) - That summer, the West London Ethical Society agreed to join with the older [London Ethical Society](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-london-ethical-society/), founded in 1886. This wasn’t to last, but the jointly agreed Statement of Principles and Aims provides an insight to the character of the Society, and the wider [Ethical movement](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-ethical-movement/). For them, pursuit of goodness needed ‘no system of supernatural rewards and punishments’, and had its basis in ‘the nature of man, as a rational and social being’. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-Amalgamation-scaled-e1709297144467-1024x609.jpg) - The union of these two London ethical societies was dissolved by agreement in June 1893. The West London Ethical Society’s annual report noted that ‘the cause which all the members had at heart could best be served by the two Societies working independently’, and expressed gratitude for the lessons learned. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-General-meeting-1894-scaled-e1709297214465-1024x594.jpg)The following year, nominations for the Society’s Executive Commitee included philanthropists John Passmore Edwards and Ruth Homan, future Labour Party leader George Lansbury, and suffragist Laura Morgan-Browne. - In 1896, the West London Ethical Society joined with others to form the [Union of Ethical Societies.](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-union-of-ethical-societies/) This would later become the Ethical Union, later the British Humanist Association, and ultimately Humanists UK. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-1902-Our-Principles-scaled-e1709297367939-1024x729.jpg)In December 1902, at a meeting held at 30 Hyde Park Gate (the home of Stanton and Adela Coit), updated Principles and Aims were adopted for the Society. - Chair of the meeting was William Stephen Sanders, a Labour politician and member of the [Fabian Society](https://heritage.humanists.uk/fabian-society/). He and his wife, suffragist Beatrice Sanders, were decades-long members of the WLES. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/01/William-Sanders-1910-LSE.jpg)William Sanders, 1910. LSE Library - In February 1908, G.E. O’Dell was invited to become paid Secretary to the Society. Like William Sanders, O’Dell was a socialist who took an active role in both politics and the Ethical movement. Two years earlier, he had run for election in the Golborne Ward of North Kensington as an Independent Labour Party Candidate. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/G.E.-ODell-768x1024.jpeg)G.E. O’Dell, c. 1906 - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/ODell-flyer-scaled-1.jpg)Election flyer from the scrapbook of G.E. O’Dell - In March 1909, members of the Society were summoned to attend a special meeting. The matter to be discussed was the leasehold of a building – the United Methodist Church in Bayswater – to be outfitted as the WLES’ new home. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Ethical-church-site-map-2-1897-1024x724.jpeg)In this map, the location of what would become the secular ‘Ethical Church’ can be seen towards the centre, just below Inverness Place, on Queen’s Road (now Queensway), in West London. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland CC BY 4.0 - Over the following years, the West London Ethical Society transformed the space, with an interior designed by the artist and freethinker Walter Crane. A [bust of Pallas Athene](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/bust-of-pallas-athene/), Greek goddess of wisdom, held pride of place. Stained glass windows depicted figures the group admired – from writer George Bernard Shaw to reformer Elizabeth Fry. Stanton Coit told the *Daily Chronicle* that they sought to honour contributors to ‘the freeing of oppressed humanity’. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Ethical-Church-interior-1024x768.jpg) - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/GBS-window-scaled-for-exhib.jpg) - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-back-871x1024.jpg) - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-Minute-book-cover-796x1024.jpg) - Beginnings ---------- In 1891, [Stanton Coit](https://heritage.humanists.uk/stanton-coit/) resigned from his leadership of the [South Place Ethical Society](https://heritage.humanists.uk/south-place-ethical-society/). In the words of [F.J. Gould](https://heritage.humanists.uk/frederick-james-gould/), Coit ‘was a fair-haired American from Ohio’, who ‘preached an admirable Humanist gospel in a happy alternation of smiles and hurricanes’, and his admirers at South Place hoped to find him a new home. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Coit-slipping-scaled-for-exhib.jpg) - On 31 January 1892, as the minute book records, some 50 or 60 of these men and women met at [Leighton Hall](https://heritage.humanists.uk/leighton-hall-neighbourhood-guild/) in Kentish Town, London, to discuss the formation of a new ethical society in central London. - On 21 February, they met again, their names dutifully recorded in the minute book. Among them were prominent figures in the early humanist movement, including Florence A. Law (daughter of forthright secularist [Harriet Law](https://heritage.humanists.uk/harriet-law/)); [Gustav Spiller](https://heritage.humanists.uk/gustav-spiller/) (who would go on to organise the [First Universal Races Congress](https://heritage.humanists.uk/first-universal-races-congress/)); and composer [Emily Josephine Troup](https://heritage.humanists.uk/emily-josephine-troup/). - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-founding-meeting-and-form-scaled-e1709305035136-1024x760.jpg) - On Sunday 26 June 1892, 81 ‘subscribers and sympathisers’ met at Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly to agree aims and discuss progress. It was also announced that [Leslie Stephen](https://heritage.humanists.uk/leslie-stephen/) – first editor of the *Dictionary of National Biography* and father of [Virginia Woolf](https://heritage.humanists.uk/virginia-woolf/) – had joined the Executive Committee, along with the Earl of Dysart (William Tollemache). - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2020/12/Woolf-and-Stephen-1902-NPG.png)Virginia Woolf; Sir Leslie Stephen by George Charles Beresford, 1902 © National Portrait Gallery, London - It was also resolved that the Society’s Sunday morning lectures would begin in October at Prince’s Hall, where a number of these early meetings had taken place. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Princes-Hall-Illustrated_London_News_14_April_1883_0012-1024x683.jpg)Prince’s Hall, Piccadilly in 1883 (doorway visible on the left) - That summer, the West London Ethical Society agreed to join with the older [London Ethical Society](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-london-ethical-society/), founded in 1886. This wasn’t to last, but the jointly agreed Statement of Principles and Aims provides an insight to the character of the Society, and the wider [Ethical movement](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-ethical-movement/). For them, pursuit of goodness needed ‘no system of supernatural rewards and punishments’, and had its basis in ‘the nature of man, as a rational and social being’. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-Amalgamation-scaled-e1709297144467-1024x609.jpg) - The union of these two London ethical societies was dissolved by agreement in June 1893. The West London Ethical Society’s annual report noted that ‘the cause which all the members had at heart could best be served by the two Societies working independently’, and expressed gratitude for the lessons learned. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-General-meeting-1894-scaled-e1709297214465-1024x594.jpg)The following year, nominations for the Society’s Executive Commitee included philanthropists John Passmore Edwards and Ruth Homan, future Labour Party leader George Lansbury, and suffragist Laura Morgan-Browne. - In 1896, the West London Ethical Society joined with others to form the [Union of Ethical Societies.](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-union-of-ethical-societies/) This would later become the Ethical Union, later the British Humanist Association, and ultimately Humanists UK. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-1902-Our-Principles-scaled-e1709297367939-1024x729.jpg)In December 1902, at a meeting held at 30 Hyde Park Gate (the home of Stanton and Adela Coit), updated Principles and Aims were adopted for the Society. - Chair of the meeting was William Stephen Sanders, a Labour politician and member of the [Fabian Society](https://heritage.humanists.uk/fabian-society/). He and his wife, suffragist Beatrice Sanders, were decades-long members of the WLES. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/01/William-Sanders-1910-LSE.jpg)William Sanders, 1910. LSE Library - In February 1908, G.E. O’Dell was invited to become paid Secretary to the Society. Like William Sanders, O’Dell was a socialist who took an active role in both politics and the Ethical movement. Two years earlier, he had run for election in the Golborne Ward of North Kensington as an Independent Labour Party Candidate. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/G.E.-ODell-768x1024.jpeg)G.E. O’Dell, c. 1906 - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/ODell-flyer-scaled-1.jpg)Election flyer from the scrapbook of G.E. O’Dell - In March 1909, members of the Society were summoned to attend a special meeting. The matter to be discussed was the leasehold of a building – the United Methodist Church in Bayswater – to be outfitted as the WLES’ new home. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Ethical-church-site-map-2-1897-1024x724.jpeg)In this map, the location of what would become the secular ‘Ethical Church’ can be seen towards the centre, just below Inverness Place, on Queen’s Road (now Queensway), in West London. Reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland CC BY 4.0 - Over the following years, the West London Ethical Society transformed the space, with an interior designed by the artist and freethinker Walter Crane. A [bust of Pallas Athene](https://heritage.humanists.uk/object/bust-of-pallas-athene/), Greek goddess of wisdom, held pride of place. Stained glass windows depicted figures the group admired – from writer George Bernard Shaw to reformer Elizabeth Fry. Stanton Coit told the *Daily Chronicle* that they sought to honour contributors to ‘the freeing of oppressed humanity’. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Ethical-Church-interior-1024x768.jpg) - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/GBS-window-scaled-for-exhib.jpg) - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-back-871x1024.jpg) $(document).ready(function () { var interactiveslider = $('#interactive-slider').bxSlider({ pager: false, auto: false, pause: 4000, controls: false, mode: 'horizontal', touchEnabled: false, ticker: false, loop: false, infiniteLoop: false }); var bottomAdjust = 2000; // Update this to bring the rest of the content closer to the end of the scroll var scrollTopValue; var interactiveSliderContainer = $('.interactive-slider'); var sliderWidth = interactiveslider.width() - bottomAdjust; interactiveSliderContainer.height(sliderWidth); var viewportHeight = $(window).height(); var distance = $('.interactive-slider-container').offset().top, $window = $(window); let isScrolling; console.log(sliderWidth); window.addEventListener('scroll', () => { clearTimeout(isScrolling); isScrolling = setTimeout(() => { $window.scroll(function() { if ( $window.scrollTop() >= distance ) { $('.interactive-slider-container').addClass('in-view'); startScrollBehavior(); } else { $('.interactive-slider-container').removeClass('in-view') resetPosition(); // On exit, reset slider // scrollInfo(); // Debugging } }); }, 1); }); // // Observe the slider block // blockObserver.observe(document.querySelector('.interactive-slider')); function startScrollBehavior() { var scrollY = $(this).scrollTop(); // Calculate the horizontal scroll position based on the vertical scroll var scrollX = scrollY - distance ; // console.log('scrollY (scroll top): ' + scrollY + '; scrollX (scrolly - slider width): ' + scrollX + '; Slider width: ' + interactiveSliderContainer.width()) interactiveslider.css('transform', 'translate3d(' + -scrollX + 'px, 0px, 0)'); } function resetPosition() { interactiveslider.css('transform', 'translate3d(' + 0 + 'px, 0px, 0)'); } function scrollInfo() { var scrollY = $(this).scrollTop(); var scrollX = scrollY - interactiveSliderContainer.width() ; console.log('scrollY (scroll top): ' + scrollY + '; scrollX (scrolly - slider width): ' + scrollX + '; Slider width: ' + interactiveSliderContainer.width()) } }); > There are also Special Services for the reception of new members, for the dedication of children to the good life, for the Society’s anniversary, and for marriages. > > Gustav Spiller, *The Ethical Movement in Great Britain* (1934) ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Friday-Club-1024x878.jpg) ### ‘the building up of a humanistic church’ The creation of a non-religious ‘church’ by no means appealed to everyone in the burgeoning humanist movement, but many of the West London Ethical Society’s activities echoed those of others. In his 1934 history of the Ethical movement in Britain, Gustav Spiller lauded their: > effective participation in the founding of the [Union of Ethical Societies](https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-union-of-ethical-societies/), of the [Moral Instruction League](https://heritage.humanists.uk/moral-instruction-league/), and of numerous Ethical Societies; founding of the Notting Hill Day Nursery; creation of the Friday Club; an immense amount of valuable social and educational work undertaken at different dates; institution of Fellowship Suppers; and, above all, the building up of a humanistic church organisation with Ethical Services and a setting worthy of the high intent of the Ethical Movement. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Coit-scrapbook-collage.jpg)1. Made in Coit’s image ----------------------- Stanton Coit was at the helm of the West London Ethical Society until his retirement in 1933. Despite his own atheism, he had tried to redefine the idea of ‘religion’ into something ‘purely human and natural’—for the worship not of gods but of positive ideals. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Ethical-Church-interior-scaled.jpg)2. Purely human and natural --------------------------- In 1927, Coit wrote that he had spent his career ‘experimenting as to the best ways of *detaching* religious sentiment from every form of belief in superhuman intelligences and supernatural forces, and of *attaching* it to all purely human and natural powers’. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/WLES-Amalgamation-edit.jpg)3. From ethical society… ------------------------ The ethical societies had aimed at bringing people together for ‘well being and well doing’: constructing a ‘science of ethics’ set free from ideas of a god or an afterlife. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/Ethical-Church-flyer-1950.jpg)4. To ‘humanistic church’ ------------------------- Coit’s ‘ethical church’ had imitators elsewhere – including in Liverpool and Forest Gate – but the 1950s would see it return to an ethical society. When H.J. Blackham took over from Coit in 1933, he soon began to steer the Ethical Church towards an ever more explicit humanism. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2023/12/1950-Ethical-Union-Conference-scaled.jpg)5. The architect of modern humanism ----------------------------------- As head of the Ethical Church, Secretary of the Ethical Union, and later as the first Executive Director of the British Humanist Association (now Humanists UK), Blackham shaped the modern humanist movement. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/03/Rose-Bush-Harold-Blackham-scaled.jpg)6. A total human response to the world -------------------------------------- Blackham’s vision of humanism was not, as he wrote, ‘a new religion, a revision of beliefs and doctrines’. Rather, ‘it had to be a life orientation that would focus a total human response to the world’. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/08/The-Humanist-June-1962.jpg) From meeting the needs of the non-religious with the Humanist Counselling Service, Agnostics Adoption Society, and Humanist Housing Association, through the provision of humanist ceremonies, to regional groups and public campaigning, the movement boomed. - ![](https://heritage.humanists.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/05/BHA219-page-003-scaled.jpg) In the collections of the West London Ethical Society, we can glimpse the debates, discussions, and decisions which steered this group from its Ethical movement origins to its role in shaping the humanist movement of today, and reveal some of the characters who played a part. $(document).ready(function () { var slider = $('#defaultslider ul').bxSlider({ pager: false, auto: false, pause: 4000, controls: true, mode: 'horizontal', touchEnabled: true, ticker: false, loop: true, infiniteLoop: true, nextText: '
', prevText: '
', }); }); Learn more ------------ - [ From the archives: ‘Why the Humanist Movement Began’ ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/from-the-archives-why-the-humanist-movement-began/) - [ A history of humanist ceremonies ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/humanist-ceremonies/) - [ 125 Years of Humanists UK: a visual history ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/article/the-ethical-movement-in-the-uk/) - [ A History of Humanism in 100 Objects ](https://heritage.humanists.uk/objects/)