Annot Robinson

Annot Robinson, nicknamed Annie, (née Wilkie) (8 June 1874 – 29 September 1925) was a Scottish suffragette and pacifist.[1][2] She was sentenced to six months for trying to break in to the House of Commons. She helped to found the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Annot Robinson
Born
Annot Erskine Wilkie

(1874-06-08)8 June 1874
Montrose, Scotland
Died29 September 1925(1925-09-29) (aged 51)
Perth, Scotland
NationalityScottish
OccupationTeacher
Known forSuffragette and pacifist

Early life

Born Annot Erskine Wilkie on 8 June 1874 in Montrose, Scotland, to John Wilkie (a draper) and Catherine Jane Erskine (a teacher).[3] Wilkie was one of three daughters. Her sister, Helen Wilkie, later became Secretary of the Dundee branch of the Women’s Freedom League. Helen was a "gifted orator"[4] who organised women for a Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) march in Edinburgh in 1907 and was part of the deputation who met with Winston Churchill in 1909.[4]

Wilkie was a pupil teacher at Montrose Academy until she was 16. She then went on to teacher training college, before taking external classes in English, French, Astronomy, Comparative Religion and History at the University of St Andrews, where she was awarded the LLA in 1901.[2][3][5]

Campaigning for women's suffrage

Wilkie worked as a teacher in Dundee and it was while she was working here that she was influenced by Agnes Husband (a member of the Dundee Labour Party.)[2][5]

In 1906 she became the first secretary of the Dundee branch of the Women’s Social and Political Union.[2] In 1907 she moved to Manchester and became an organizer for the Women’s Social and Political Union, as well as joining the local branch of the Independent Labour Party, which she had become a member of the year before.[2] In 1908 she and other members of the Women’s Social and Political Union tried to break into the House of Commons after arriving hidden in a furniture van, for which she was sentenced to six months in prison.[2] In 1910 she became an organizer for the Women's Labour League and offered a conference resolution condemning the leadership of the Labour Party for failing to support the Women’s Labour League and women's suffrage.[2] She later became an organizer for the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, but during the war she resigned from that, helped found the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, organized Women's Peace Crusades throughout the nation, and worked for equal pay for female munitions factory workers.[2][6] After the war she worked as a Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom organizer until 1922, and as such traveled to America, Britain, and Holland.[2]

Death

She died in Perth Royal Infirmary during an operation, and Ellen Wilkinson wrote her obituary.[2] Wilkinson described her as "a big woman and a big personality" with "an exquisite sense of the ridiculous and a sharp tongue."[3][2][7]

Posthumous recognition

Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the plinth of the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, unveiled in 2018.[8][9][10]

References
  1. Robinson [née Wilkie], Annot Erskine [Annie]. "Robinson [née Wilkie], Annot Erskine [Annie] (1874–1925), suffragist and pacifist | Oxford Dictionary of National Biography". Oxforddnb.com. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  2. "Wilkie, Annot (Robinson) – Socialist, Suffragette Wilkie, Helen – Socialist, Suffragette | Dundee Women's Trail". Dundeewomenstrail.org.uk. 18 January 2013. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  3. Ewan, Elizabeth L.; Innes, Sue; Reynolds, Sian; Pipes, Rose (27 June 2007). Biographical Dictionary of ScottishWomen. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9780748626601.
  4. The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Ewan, Elizabeth., Innes, Sue., Reynolds, Sian. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2006. ISBN 9780748626601. OCLC 367680960.CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. Crawford, Elizabeth (2001). The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928. Psychology Press. ISBN 9780415239264.
  6. "Suffragette City – Manchester's Central Library hosts exhibition celebrating the life of Annot Robinson | Manchester City Council". Manchester.gov.uk. 17 March 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  7. "Mrs Anott Robinson (née Wilkie) | Manchester and Salford Women's Trades Union Council". www.mswtuc.co.uk. Retrieved 9 April 2018.
  8. "Historic statue of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett unveiled in Parliament Square". Gov.uk. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  9. Topping, Alexandra (24 April 2018). "First statue of a woman in Parliament Square unveiled". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 April 2018.
  10. "Millicent Fawcett statue unveiling: the women and men whose names will be on the plinth". iNews. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
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