Belle Tutaev founded the Alliance in 1961 after writing to The Guardian newspaper detailing the challenges she had faced as a young mother in finding suitable childcare for her own children.
In the letter, she called for a national petition to be presented to the minister of education, demanding more nursery schools and play facilities for the under-fives.
Ms Tutaev received more than 150 letters from people wanting to establish pre-school groups and some already running them, and collected around 4,000 signatures for her petition.
The following year, she organised the first Annual General Meeting of the Pre-school Playgroups Association, as the Alliance was then known, which had amassed 150 members.
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