Biographies
Annie Kenney
Annie Kenney, the daughter of Nelson Horatio Kenney and Anne Wood, was born in Oldham, Lancashire in 1879. Anne Wood had eleven children and worked with her husband in the Oldham textile industry. When Annie reached the age of ten she began work in a local cotton mill. Soon afterwards a whirling bobbin tore off one of her fingers.
Although Annie received very little education she did develop a strong interest in literature. Annie was especially impressed by authors such as Robert Blatchford (Merrie England) and Edward Carpenter (England's Ideal). After being inspired by an article she read in Robert Blatchford's radical journal, The Clarion, Annie joined the local branch of the Independent Labour Party.
At an Independent Labour Party meeting in 1905, Annie Kenney heard Christabel Pankhurst speak on the subject of women's rights. Annie was extremely impressed with the content of the speech and the two women soon became close friends. Annie decided to join the recently formed Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU).
The WSPU was often accused of being an organisation that existed to serve the middle and upper classes. As Annie Kenney was one of the organisations few working class members, when the WSPU decided to open a branch in the East End of London, she was asked to leave the mill and become a full-time worker for the organisation. Annie joined Sylvia Pankhurst in London and they gradually began to persuade working-class women to join the WSPU.
On 13th October 1905, Annie Kenney and Christabel attended a meeting in London to hear Sir Edward Grey, a minister in the British government. When Grey was talking, the two women constantly shouted out, "Will the Liberal Government give votes to women?" When the women refused to stop shouting, the police were called to evict them from the meeting. Christabel Pankhurst and Annie Kenney refused to leave and during the struggle, a policeman claimed the two women kicked and spat at him. Pankhurst and Kenney were arrested and charged with assault.
Pankhurst and Kenney were found guilty of assault and fined five shillings each. When the women refused to pay the fine they were sent to prison. The case shocked the nation. For the first time in Britain women had used violence in an attempt to win the vote.
Annie Kenney was to go to prison several times during the next nine years. When Christabel Pankhurst fled to Paris to avoid arrest in 1912, Annie was put in charge of the WSPU in London. Every week Annie travelled to Paris to receive Christabel's latest orders.
In 1913 Annie Kenney was sentenced to eighteen months in prison and like other suffragettes she went on hunger and thirst strike. Released under the provisions of the Cat and Mouse Act, she went into hiding until she was caught once again and returned to prison.
The outbreak of war in 1914 ended Annie Kenney's militant campaign for the vote. For the next four years she helped organise an anti-Bolshevist campaign against strikes.
After the war Annie Kenney lost interest in politics and for the rest of her life she devoted her energies to Theosophy. Annie Kenney died in 1953.
Biographical Links
Christabel Pankhurst
Sylvia Pankhurst
Source Database
1.9
2.9
16.2
16.3
16.4
16.8
17.5
19.1
20.2
25.5
26.1
Internet Links
Theosophy
http://www.blavatsky.org/indexx.htm
Further Reading
Annie Kenney, Memories of a Militant, Arnold (1924)
Marie Roberts (ed.), The Militants, Routledge (1995)
Midge Mackenzie, Shoulder to Shoulder, Penguin (1975)
Andrew Rosen, Rise Up Women: The Militant Campaign of the WSPU, 1903-1914, Routledge (1974)
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