Buddhist Society. The Buddhist Society of Great Britain and Ireland with its headquarters in London is the oldest Buddhist organisation in Europe. The Society was founded in 1907 under the presidency of T. W. Rhys Davids in order to receive the mission of Ananda Metteyya to England in 1908. The Society was wound up in 1925 and replaced by the Buddhist Lodge, London, in 1926, the Buddhist Society, London, in 1943, and the Buddhist Society in 1952. Its journal Buddhism in England, founded in 1926, was renamed The Middle Way in 1945. Vice-presidents have included I. B. Horner and Edward Conze, and the patron of the Society is the Dalai Lama. See also Britain.

A Dictionary of Buddhism, Oxford University Press, 2003, 2004 (which is available in electronic version from answer.com)