 The organisation was founded by John Joseph Woodward who was also secretary and Edward Stanley, 17th Earl of Derby as a right-wing alternative to the National Association of Discharged Sailors and Soldiers (NFDSS) and the National Federation of Discharged and Demobilized Sailors and Soldiers.In particular, the NFDSS had put a candidate up against Derby's son in the 1917 Liverpool Abercromby by-election.Historian Niall Barr has stated that the movement was intended to "form a buttress against Bolshevism"