White Cross Army

The White Cross Army was an organisation set up in 1883 by philanthropist Ellice Hopkins with help from the Bishop of Durham, to promote "social purity".

[1][2][3] The organisation was Christian in ethos but, at the insistence of Hopkins and somewhat unusually for a purity association, it was non-denominational in practice.

Its name was symbolic: White denoted purity, Cross referred to the campaign being for Christ, and Army reflected its disciplined nature.

Its target audience was mostly working-class men, who were exhorted to pledge their support for its aims by speakers at mass meetings.

The British branches had attracted 2,000 pledge-takers in that time and were mostly in the industrialised regions of The Midlands and North England.