Leicester Secular Society

THE OLDEST SECULAR SOCIETY IN THE WORLD - FOUNDED 1851

History of the Society and of Freethought


Biographical Notes

Socrates
Jesus ?

b.1650-1799
Voltaire
Thomas Paine
Robert Owen
Richard Carlile

b.1800-1849
Charles Darwin
Charles Bradlaugh
Mary Anne Evans (George Eliot)
W. H. Holyoak
G. J. Holyoake
Harriet Law
William Morris
James Thomson


b.1850-1899
G. W. Foote
The Gimsons
F. J. Gould
F. A. Ridley
J. M. Robertson
William Wilber
E. H. Hassell

b.1900-1950
Peter Miller

History of the Society

History by F. J. Gould 1900
F. J. Gould's Life Story
S. A. Gimson Recollections 1932
History by Gillian Hawtin 1972
Leicester Rationalist Trust
The Five Busts
Hymns of Modern Thought

Presidents and Vice Presidents

The following lists of presidents and vice-presidents waas compiled by Fred Lee in 2000 and is Appendix A in his draft thesis "Secularism from the Victorian Age to the Twenty-first Century; The History of the Leicester Secular Society."

YearPresidentVice-president
1889Sydney Gimsonnone recorded
1899..William Wilber
1900William WilberSydney Gimson
1901Sydney GimsonWiliam Wilber
1914..E. Pinder
1916..W. H. Scott
1921..T. Cater
1922..F. J. Smith
1923..E. Harry Hassell
1938....
1939E. Harry HassellA. J. Essex
1940..J. Cooper
1943..J. Abbott
1945..J. Cartwright
1949G. A. Kirk..
1951..L. Croxtall
1952..J. Cartwright
1957..L. Hall
1973*A. Davis..
1974..L. Croxtall
1976..John O'Higgins
1977..Peter Miller
1980Peter MillerL. Croxtall
1982..D. G. Parsons
1984..Anthony Barron
1985..D. G. Parsons
1986..Paul Harding
1987Rupert Halfhide..
1988Paul HardingRupert Halfhide
1989..B. A. Wood
1990..Lyn Hurst
1992..B. A. Wood
1993B. A. Wood*none elected
1994Frederic S. Leenone elected
1994..Bob Hall
2000Lyn HurstMichael Gerard

* Notes: (a) From 1973 the election of officers seems to have been moved to the mid-year so the dates of end of one presidency and start of another are given as the same year. (b) When I asked Woody Wood to confirm these dates he denied that he was ever President, so there seems to have been some confusion in the 1990s.

Sources of Historical Information

Sources of information relating to the History of Leicester Secular Society are widely distributed. The purpose of this section is to draw together the various sources known to us, so far.

First we give more details of the items available, complete or in part, on this website.


Records Office: There are some records of the Society which were deposited at the Leicester Record Office, Wigston, in 1968. The following list can also be viewed on five microfilm rolls kept by the Society, made in 1981.

There are other records in the British Library and at Bishopsgate Library, in London. Details to be included in due course.



This representation of the secular hall is from a framed ink drawing, undated and by an unknown artist, that now hangs in the ground-floor meeting hall.

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Page updated 30 December 2007 GPJ