Annie Furuhjelm

She was the first enfranchised woman in Europe to serve as a delegate to the International Women Suffrage Alliance and the first elected female legislator to speak before the British Parliament.

Annie Fredrika Furuhjelm was born on 11 December 1859[1] at Rekoor Castle in Sitka on Baranof Island[2] in the Russian Colony of Alaska.

Her father, Johan Hampus Furuhjelm, was the penultimate Russian governor of Alaska[3] and her mother, Anna von Schoultz, was the daughter of a Swedish-Finnish adventurer.

[4] When Alaska was purchased by the United States, the family left in 1867 for Russian Siberia, where they spent six years in Nikolayevsk-on-Amur before returning to Helsinki.

[5] She was highly educated and fluently spoke English, French, German, Italian, Russian and Swedish,[3] having completed studies at the girl's gymnasium in 1876 and post-graduate college in 1887.

She became a regular speaker at international suffrage meetings; a contributor to Jus Suffragii, the official journal of the IWSA; and a personal friend and companion to Catt.

[10] She continued to push for the repeal of prohibition believing that the law was creating an upsurge in crime and smuggling and was not controlling the consumption of alcohol.