The key figure instrumental in bringing about the merger was Edward Bickersteth, a member of both former organisations.
[2] While the Continental Society appointed and funded its own workers, the Central Committee worked through local agencies, providing moral and financial support, but leaving the selection of workers and other such matters in the hands of locals.
The object of the amalgamated society was stated as follows: To collect funds in aid of the Evangelical Societies of France and Geneva, and such other institutions as may be formed on similar principles, within the limits of the French Protestant Churches, and generally to promote the religious principles of the Reformation beyond those limits, on the Continent and the Islands of Europe.
The Foreign Aid Society continued its work until the eve of the First World War.
Its annual reports and its magazines, The Gospel on the Continent and the Watchfire,[1] are available in the British and Bodleian libraries.