Annot Robinson, nicknamed Annie, (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

Wilkie; 8 June 1874 – 29 September 1925) was a Scottish

suffragette A suffragette was a member of an activist women's organisation in the early 20th century who, under the banner "Votes for Women", fought for the right to vote in public elections in the United Kingdom. The term refers in particular to members ...

and

pacifist Pacifism is the opposition to war or violence. The word ''pacifism'' was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901. A related term is ''a ...

. 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 The Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) is a non-profit non-governmental organization working "to bring together women of different political views and philosophical and religious backgrounds determined to study and make kno ...

Early life

Born Annot Erskine Wilkie on 8 June 1874 in Montrose, Scotland, to John Wilkie (a draper) and Catherine Jane Erskine (a teacher). Wilkie was one of three daughters. Her sister, Helen Wilkie, later became Secretary of the

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

branch of the Women’s Freedom League. Helen was a "gifted orator" who organised women for a

Women’s Social and Political Union The Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) was a women-only political movement and leading militant organisation campaigning for women's suffrage in the United Kingdom founded in 1903. Known from 1906 as the suffragettes, its membership and p ...

(WSPU) march in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

in 1907 and was part of the deputation who met with

Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...

in 1909. Wilkie was a pupil teacher at

Montrose Academy Montrose Academy is a Mixed-sex education, coeducational secondary school in Montrose Angus. The School now teaches people from ages 11–18. It became a comprehensive school in the mid-fifties and was one of a pair of Scottish schools which for ...

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 The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, f ...

, where she was awarded the LLA in 1901.

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.) In 1906 she became the first secretary of the

branch of the

. In 1907 she moved to

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

and became an organizer for the Women’s Social and Political Union, as well as joining the local branch of the

Independent Labour Party The Independent Labour Party (ILP) was a British political party of the left, established in 1893 at a conference in Bradford, after local and national dissatisfaction with the Liberal Party (UK), Liberals' apparent reluctance to endorse work ...

, which she had become a member of the year before. In 1908 she and other members of the Women’s Social and Political Union tried to break into the

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of ...

after arriving hidden in a furniture van, for which she was sentenced to six months in prison. In 1910 she became an organizer for the

Women's Labour League The Women's Labour League (WLL) was a pressure organisation, founded in London in 1906, to promote the political representation of women in parliament and local bodies. The idea was first suggested by Mary Macpherson, a linguist and journalist wh ...

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. 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

, organized Women's Peace Crusades throughout the nation, and worked for equal pay for female

munitions Ammunition, also known as ammo, is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. The term includes both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines), and the component parts of ...

factory workers. 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.

Death

She died in

Perth Royal Infirmary Perth Royal Infirmary is a district hospital in Perth. The Royal Infirmary serves a population of around 182,000 across the City of Perth and the wider Perth and Kinross area. It is managed by NHS Tayside. History Perth Royal infirmary has it ...

during an operation, and

Ellen Wilkinson Ellen Cicely Wilkinson (8 October 1891 – 6 February 1947) was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician who served as Secretary of State for Education, Minister of Education from July 1945 until her death. Earlier in her care ...

wrote her obituary. Wilkinson described her as "a big woman and a big personality" with "an exquisite sense of the ridiculous and a sharp tongue." Robinson's daughter, Helen, was interviewed about her mother in September 1981 as part of Brian Harrison's Suffrage Interviews project, titled ''Oral evidence on the suffragette and suffragist movements: the Brian Harrison interviews.'' Robinson talks about the relationship between her mother and father, Sam Robinson, and a little about their other daughter, Helen's sister Cathy, as well as suffrage meetings that she attended with her mother.

Posthumous recognition

Her name and picture (and those of 58 other women's suffrage supporters) are on the

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

of the

statue of Millicent Fawcett The statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square, London, honours the British suffragist leader and social campaigner Dame Millicent Fawcett. It was made in 2018 by Gillian Wearing. Following a campaign and petition by the activist Caroli ...

Parliament Square Parliament Square is a square at the northwest end of the Palace of Westminster in the City of Westminster in central London, England. Laid out in the 19th century, it features a large open green area in the centre with trees to its west, and ...

, London, unveiled in 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Annot 1874 births 1925 deaths Scottish pacifists Scottish schoolteachers Independent Labour Party members 19th-century Scottish women 20th-century Scottish women Scottish suffragettes Women's Social and Political Union Equality rights Women's Freedom League Alumni of the University of St Andrews Women's International League for Peace and Freedom