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Annie Kenney

(1879-1953), Suffragette

Sitter in 1 portrait
A loyal devotee of Christabel Pankhurst and a key member of the Women's Social and Political Union, Kenney was an important working class figure in the campaign for women's rights. Beginning work as a weaver's assistant in a textile mill aged 10 years, her finger was severed by a whirling bobbin and she often addressed crowds dressed in mill worker clothes. She stood for election in the textile union committee and become its first female member. In 1905, Kenney was imprisoned after interrupting a speech by Edward Grey. In her autobiography Memories of a Militant she recalled 'The changed life into which most of us entered was a revolution in itself. No home-life, we were free and alone in a great brilliant city'.

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Annie Kenney, published by Sandle Brothers - NPG x200692

Annie Kenney

published by Sandle Brothers
halftone postcard print, circa 1907
On display in Room 24 on Floor 2 at the National Portrait Gallery
NPG x200692

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