Primitive Methodist Anti-Cigarette League certificate

Certificate issued by the Primitive Methodist Sunday School Union in 1906 to encourage young people to avoid smoking by signing a pledge to abstain from the use of Tobacco in every form until they were at least 21 years of age and renew it every year on the same day by sending a postcard to the secretary of the association. Printed in gold and green on white card with a lot of decorative border work and a young man standing, symbolically on top of a mountain holding a pennant with VICTORY inscribed on it.

The Primitive Methodists were formed when Methodist lay preacher Hugh Bourne was expelled from the Wesleyan Methodists in 1808 and, with 200 followers, started their own version, named after John Wesley’s 1790 statement: "I still remain a primitive Methodist." Membership had reached 165,410 by 1875 with travelling preachers, well over a thousand chapels and, unusually for the time, women evangelists. They were noted for their stand against alcohol drinking, recommending temperance societies as early as 1832.

This certificate is proof that tobacco smoking was also seen as being sinful by the start of the 20th century. This copy was used on 11 November 1908.