Ann "Annie" Kenney (13 September 1879 – 9 July 1953) was an English working-class suffragette and socialist feminist[1] who became a leading figure in the Women's Social and Political Union.

[2] Kenney attracted the attention of the press and public in 1905 when she and Christabel Pankhurst were imprisoned for several days for assault and obstruction related to the questioning of Sir Edward Grey at a Liberal rally in Manchester on the issue of votes for women.

She remained at the mill for 15 years, was involved in trade-union activities, furthered her education through self-study and—inspired by Robert Blatchford's publication, The Clarion—promoted the study of literature among her colleagues.

[3] Kenney became actively involved in the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) after the premature death of her mother Ann at the age of fifty-three in January 1905,[3] when she and her sister Jessie heard Teresa Billington-Greig and Christabel Pankhurst[8] speak at the Oldham socialist Clarion Vocal Club in 1905.

Emmeline Pankhurst wrote in her autobiography that "this was the beginning of a campaign the like of which was never known in England, or for that matter in any other country... we interrupted a great many meetings... and we were violently thrown out and insulted.

[10] In June that year Kenney, Adelaide Knight, and Mrs Sbarborough were arrested when they tried to obtain an audience with H. H. Asquith, then Chancellor of the Exchequer.

In 1913 she and Flora Drummond arranged for WSPU representatives to speak with leading politicians David Lloyd George and Sir Edward Grey.

They explained the terrible pay and working conditions that they suffered and the hope that a vote would enable women to challenge the status quo in a democratic manner.

Alice Hawkins from Leicester explained how her fellow male workers could choose a man to represent them while the women were left unrepresented.

Supporters, including Agnes Harben and her husband, would offer Kenney and others to recuperate at their country house, Newlands, Chalfont St.

In autumn 1915 Kenney accompanied Emmeline Pankhurst, Flora Drummond, Norah Dacre Fox and Grace Roe to South Wales, the Midlands and Clydeside on a recruiting and lecture tour to encourage trade unions to support war work.

In August 1921, Kenney began publishing her 'Revelations' and so-called 'secrets of suffragettes' in a series of twelve articles in the popular weekly Scottish paper, The Sunday Post, among the news, human interest stories and short features.

[20] In other episodes in the series, Kenney gave dramatic first person accounts of the events (and people she met) during her suffrage activism, including some of those described above.

[20] In the final article in November that year, her last story described meeting the Archbishop of Canterbury (Randall Davidson) in Lambeth Palace in 1914, claiming 'sanctuary' until women were given the vote (which he recognised could be years); she elaborates on the various attempts to make her leave, her arrest, going on a 7-day hunger strike, her release to recover and her return to sit on the doorstep, only to be taken off in an ambulance to the workhouse infirmary.