None given

37

Married

126 Nicholls Street, Coventry

NUWSS

Complies

Annie was born in Portsmouth in 1874 and was a member of the law abiding Coventry Women's Suffrage Society - the local branch of the law abiding NUWSS. In 1911, we find her living in Nicholls Street with her husband John a draughstman engineer in a local armament works. Clearly, Annie maintained a life long passion for politics and she gains prominence in Coventry affairs in the 1920s and 1930s. She became involved with the War Pensions Committee and was the appointed representative of the Coventry Railway Women's Guild. In 1929, she wrote an article in the The Daily Herald rebuking criticism of married women working for 'pin money' thus undercutting men's wages stating that 'until the mother is provided by the state with sufficient to give her children proper conditions of life, no-one has a right to interfere with what she shall do'. In 1934, Annie stood for the Labour Party in a Coventry by- election that took place when a seat became vacant in the Hillfield's ward. She won by a considerable margin and became Councillor for Hillfields for several years. Annie was also a member of the Women's Cooperative Guild who she staunchly defended in the local press in 1938 when they were criticised for the wearing and selling of the white poppies of pacifism. She died aged 76 in 1950. Researcher: Tara Morton. Coventry research funded by Warwick University.