Kenney Family

Ann (Annie) Kenney (1879-1953) and all but two of her siblings were born at Springhead, Yorkshire. At the age of 10 Annie started work as a cotton-mill operative. In 1905 she was recruited to the cause of women's suffrage after hearing Mrs Pankhurst and her daughters addressing an open-air meeting in Manchester, and on 13th October 1905 she accompanied Christabel Pankhurst to an election meeting in Manchester Free Trade Hall. The pair heckled the speaker, Sir Edward Grey, were evicted, and conducted an impromptu meeting in the street. They were arrested and imprisoned, Ann for three days, Christabel for seven. Thereafter Annie Kenney was a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), the organisation founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903.

Annie supported Christabel Pankhurst's policy of militant action, served several terms in prison, went on hunger and thirst strike, and endured forcible feeding. After the imprisonment of Emmeline Pankhurst and other WSPU leaders in 1912, and Christabel's escape to France, Annie took over the London end of the organization of the WSPU. At the outbreak of World War I and the suspension of militant action by the WSPU, Annie was an active supporter of the government and in particular its policy of mobilising women.

...