Amidst fears that there might be little of the canal network left unless urgent action was taken, a number of canal enthusiasts in the East Midlands formed the Inland Waterways Protection Society on 21 April 1958. It was initially a breakaway movement from the Inland Waterways Association (IWA), which at the time was undergoing radical reorganisation to become a non-profit distributing company limited by guarantee. The president was Sir Geoffrey Lowles, who was still a member of the IWA council at the time, and had opposed the reorganisation. Teddy Edwards was its waterways consultant, and Mrs Bessie Bunker of Sheffield became its secretary. She was accused by Robert Aickman, the chairman of the IWA, of being the founder of the new society, and although she rejected the idea, she did admit that it would probably not have been formed without her.