Description: Showing the Friendly Societies demonstration. At the beginning of the nineteenth century there were about 7,000 friendly societies in existence - by the end of the nineteenth century there were some 30,000 registered friendly societies catering for the needs of some 4.5 million persons. A further million people were catered for by special societies applying only to their own industry, trade or profession. This demonstrates the importance of societies when the working population was only about 10 million people, so that more than half of them were actually covered by friendly society membership. (information from www.afs.org.uk) Queen Victoria reigned for nearly 64 years - the longest reign in British history. Her eldest son Albert Edward (Bertie) was 59 when he became king, having been heir apparent for longer than anyone else in British history. Queen Victoria had been the last of the Hanoverian Monarchs.