In 1907, after the imprisonment of his wife, Maggie Moffat for suffrage activity, Graham Moffat formed the Glasgow Men's League for Women's Suffrage. It was intended to offer support and solidarity for the husbands and brothers of women involved in the campaign, as well as male sympathisers. Many of the members were politically active and powerful men who wanted to use their influence in the campaign. In July 1913, organised by Maud Arncliffe Sennett, a large delegation of Scottish men travelled to London for an audience with the prime minister, H. H. Asquith, to discuss extending the franchise to women. The request for a meeting was refused. A direct result of this failure to meet with them was that they formed the new campaigning organisation. The artist John Wilson McLaren wrote a verse about the trip: The inaugural meeting was held in Glasgow on 11 September 1913. The founder, president, and main organiser of the July deputation was Maud Arncliffe Sennett. She had discussed the possibility of a men's campaigning organisation on the train to the funeral of Emily Davison, which she attended on behalf of the Actresses' Franchise League. The honorary secretary of the Edinburgh branch was Nannie Brown. Branches were formed in Midlothian and Berwick upon Tweed.
Activities
The league had no party political loyalties, and supported all of the different suffrage groups, whether militant or constitutional. They sent petitions and resolutions to those in power, and corresponded with other organisations to rally support. They held a meeting in Bridgeton in November 1913, which was addressed by Maud Arncliffe Sennet, Henry Harben, JP, Bailie Alston and Helen Crawfurd, who "welcomed the NMF as a new order of chivalry: it came to fight for the oppressed and sweated women worker". In the same month they also met in the Synod Hall, Edinburgh, and were addressed by John Cockburn, Mrs Cavendish Bentinck, and Maud Arncliffe Sennett. In April 1914, the league took part in a larger demonstration at Cupar, where H. H. Asquith was standing in a ministerial by-election. They announced their intention of opposing him at the next general election. The league continued their campaigning work during the war years, which included an open-air meeting at The Meadows, Edinburgh in May 1915, a demonstration in July 1915, addressed by Maud Arncliffe Sennett, and a meeting in April 1916. Their activities continued until 1919.
