26 Facts About Annie Kenney

Ann "Annie" Kenney was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union.

Annie Kenney co-founded its first branch in London with Minnie Baldock.

Annie Kenney had friendships with Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence, Mary Blathwayt, Clara Codd, Adela Pankhurst, and Christabel Pankhurst.

Annie Kenney was born in 1879 in Springhead, West Riding of Yorkshire, to Horatio Nelson Annie Kenney and Anne Wood.

Annie Kenney was the fourth daughter in a family of twelve children, eleven of whom survived infancy.

Annie Kenney started part-time work in a cotton mill at the age of 10, while attending school.

Annie Kenney began full-time work at 13, which involved 12-hour shifts from six in the morning.

Annie Kenney was a regular church attender and sang in a local choir.

Annie Kenney became actively involved in the Women's Social and Political Union after the premature death of her mother Ann at the age of fifty-three in January 1905, when she and her sister Jessie heard Teresa Billington-Greig and Christabel Pankhurst speak at the Oldham socialist Clarion Vocal Club in 1905.

Annie Kenney described Billington's message delivered as 'a sledgehammer of cold logic and reason' but that she liked Christabel, and was invited to meet her mother a week later, anticipating this made Annie Kenney feel that she 'lived on air;.

Annie Kenney found herself explaining labour rights, unemployment and for giving women the right to vote, to a large Manchester crowd.

Annie Kenney was imprisoned for three days for her part in the protest; she was jailed 13 times in total.

Annie Kenney was invited to speak to working women's gatherings across the country throughout the campaign, including campaigning for a week in Liverpool at street meetings organised by Patricia Woodlock and Alice Morrissey.

Annie Kenney became part of the senior hierarchy of the WSPU, organising the 1911 census boycott in Bristol and becoming the WSPU deputy in 1912.

Annie Kenney, who was involved in other militant acts and underwent force-feeding many times, was always determined to confront the authorities and highlight the injustice of the Cat and Mouse Act: a suffragette nickname for the Prisoners Act 1913 which allowed prisoners who were ill, to be released on licence for a period, until well enough to be returned to prison to complete their sentence.

Miss Annie Kenney was conveyed to the meeting in a horse ambulance; and she was borne into the meeting on a stretcher, which was raised to the platform and placed on two chairs.

Annie Kenney raised her right hand and fluttered a handkerchief and, covered with blankets, lay motionless watching the audience.

Annie Kenney had been given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU.

Annie Kenney took her message as far afield as France and the United States.

Annie Kenney goes on to describe how she felt about suddenly speaking in public and to crowds of fellow factory workers and learning to handle the hecklers.

In other episodes in the series, Annie Kenney gave dramatic first person accounts of the events during her suffrage activism, including some of those described above.

Annie Kenney had many close friendships with women in the Suffragette Movement.

Annie Kenney was a frequent visitor to their home, Eagle House, and unlike everyone else she planted four trees.

Mary Blathwayt made notes in her diary of the women Annie Kenney slept with when she stayed at Eagle House.

Annie Kenney's funeral was conducted according to the rites of AMORC and her ashes were scattered by her family on Saddleworth Moor.

In 1999, Oldham Council erected a blue plaque in her honour at Lees Brook Mill in Lees, near Oldham, where Annie Kenney had started work in 1892.