The Thomas Fowell Buxton Society is holding its AGM this month coinciding with this celebratory year.

The Society, founded in Weymouth in 2011, is this year commemorating the bicentenary of Thomas Fowell Buxton, MP for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, opening the Parliamentary debate on the abolition of slavery.

This was on 15th May, 1823. It was the start of a ten year hard-fought campaign that resulted in the Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833. This came into force a year later on 1st August 1834, liberating 700,000 slaves in the British Dominions.

The Thomas Fowell Buxton Society AGM will take place at St Aldhelms, Spa Road, Weymouth, on Wednesday, March 15 at 2pm.

The Society welcomes non-members to events and there is no admission fee.

After the trustees’ report there will be an interval, when refreshments will be available and Linda Perry of The Bridge will be fielding a fair-trade stall.

Following on from the interval, the presentation by Joyce Fannon will be on 'Breaking the chains: The abolitionists that Thomas Fowell Buxton led in Parliament from 1823-1833.'

Buxton’s team was a talented one. Six members were lawyers, three of whom later became part of the judiciary. Two were to hold cabinet posts.

One of the lawyers was the Irish MP, Daniel O’Connell. Three of Buxton’s team were in the Lords. William Frederick Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh was one.

His father had built Gloucester Lodge at Melcombe Regis, giving the impetus for the development of the coastal spa of Royal Weymouth.

Two further presentations will be given in this Celebratory Year, one at St Mary’s in June will focus on the Parliamentary Campaign and will be given by Carl Whitehouse.

In October at the Society’s Anti-Slavery Day event at St Aldhelms, the final presentation will be on the role of the Anti-Slavery Society formed in 1823 in educating public opinion so that in the 1820s and 1830s over a 1.5 million signatures on anti-slavery petitions were collected.

Education Officer Joyce Fannon said: "These were presented in Parliament and resulted in the Grey Government being unable to delay any longer.

"The Abolition of Slavery Act of 1833 is part of our national and local heritage."