Sarah Ellen Kenney Clarke (1876–1953), known as Nell Kenney or Nellie Kenney, was a British suffragette best known as a sister of prominent suffragists Annie, Jessie,

Jenny Jenny may refer to: * Jenny (given name), a popular feminine name and list of real and fictional people * Jenny (surname), a family name Animals * Jenny (donkey), a female donkey * Jenny (elephant), a female elephant in the German Army in Worl ...

, and

Kitty Kenney Caroline "Kitty" Kenney (1880–1952) was a sister of Annie Kenney, one of the most well-known British suffragettes to go on hunger strike,''The Militant Suffrage Movement : Citizenship and Resistance in Britain'', by Laura E. Nym Mayhall, Assis ...

Life

Kenney was born in 1876, in Lees, the third daughter of Horation Nelson and Agnes Kenney who later lived at 71 Redgrave Street,

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

. She was one of a family of twelve siblings, eleven of whom survived infancy. Nell, like others in her family went to work at a young age in a British cotton mill. Her mother died at the age of fifty-three in January 1905, and left Nell's younger sister Annie in charge of the six siblings and father (who had nursed his wife in her last illness). Her sisters Jenny (Jane) and Caroline (Kitty) became Montessori teachers as well as suffragettes and emigrated to the USA in 1916. Only a few months later, Nell was the recipient of a noteworthy letter from her sister Annie, after Annie's release from

Strangeways Prison HM Prison Manchester is a Category A and B men's prison in Manchester, England, operated by His Majesty's Prison Service. It is still commonly referred to as Strangeways, which was its former official name derived from the area in which it is l ...

in October 1905. Annie's arboretum was established by the Blathwayt family where recovering suffragettes could stay and plant a commemorative tree. Nell was also an active suffragette. In 1907, she was arrested and sent to prison for demonstrations at 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 ...

. She also organized

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 ...

activities in the West Midlands. She met her husband, Frank Randall Clarke (1872–1955), at a suffragette rally. The couple married around 1908 and emigrated to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, Canada. They had three children: Beatrice (born 1910), and Dorothy (born 1911)and John Lawrence (born 1914). Frank Randall Clarke was involved in work with disabled people. Nell died in 1953 and is buried in Montreal. Some of her papers are included in the Kenney Papers collection at the University of East Anglia Archives.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kenney, Nell 1876 births 1953 deaths Activists from Manchester Women's Social and Political Union People from Lees, Greater Manchester

Life

See also

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