Giant alcohol – A worthy opponent for the children of the band of hope

Abstract

From its foundation in 1847, the temperance organisation the Band of Hope addressed its young members as consumers, victims and agents. In the first two roles, they encountered the effects of drink of necessity, but in the third role, they were encouraged to seek it out, attempting to influence individuals and wider society against “Giant Alcohol”. With an estimated membership of half the school-age population by the early twentieth century, well over three million, the Band of Hope also acted more directly to influence policy, and encouraged young people to consider issues of policy and politics. With its wide range of activities and material to educate, entertain and empower millions of children, and its radical view of the place of the child, the Band of Hope not only mobilised its child members to lobby for legal change, including prohibition, but also took an active part in pointing out the cost of alcohol to society, particularly during the 1914–1918 war. The organisation began to decline post 1918, and this article focuses on the address made to children by the Band of Hope in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, at a time when its innovative view of children as able to understand and influence policy decisions reflected developments in the construction of childhood. This article draws on the archive of the British National Temperance League, over 50,000 items located in the Livesey Collection, University of Central Lancashire.

• Abstinence
• alcohol
• band of hope
• temperance
• young people

Declaration of interest

There are no conflicts of interest to report.

Notes

¹This song was originally a poem by Henry Clay Work (1832–1884) of Connecticut, first set to music and performed in the USA in 1858, according to Waites and Hunter (1985). It became very popular in the UK subsequently: the first example I have found is printed in the children’s magazine Onward in April, 1867.

²Figures for membership are taken from annual reports of the UK Band of Hope Union.

³Band of Hope Chronicle, April, 1881, p. 61.

⁴All songs mentioned in this article are from the monthly children’s magazine Onward (1865–1910).

⁵See Olsen, Juvenile Nation, for more on this point.

⁶Onward, September, 1882, pp. 134–5: 134.

⁷Onward, November 1903, p. 171. The calculation of such consumption figures, sometimes with average intake, was a frequently used device in temperance propaganda.

⁸“Young Citizens”, Band of Hope Review (January1903, p. 6), and “Good Citizenship”, Band of Hope Review (February1903, p. 15).

⁹“A Million More”, Band of Hope Review (May 1911, p. 40).