Papers of Annie Lacon

The archive consists of four copies of the newsletter of the Suffragette Fellowship (1946-1966); roll of honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914 (undated, c. 1960), summons and press cuttings relating her imprisonment and suffrage including postcard from Mrs Pankhurst (1907); pamphlet (1957); photographs of Lacon (1950); press cutting on Lacon and ephemera related to celebrations of suffrage activities (1960s-1970s).

Annie Lacon (1880-1968) was born in Birmingham in 1880. She attended a meeting in Birmingham in 1906 at which Emmeline Pankhurst was a speaker and immediately became the first member of the Birmingham branch of the Women's Social & Political Union (WSPU). There she also met the man who was to become her husband. In 1907 she was selected as a delegate from Birmingham sent to protest at the House of Commons. During this event on the 20 Mar 1907, she was arrested with around seventy other women and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. The following day she was tried and fined five shilling which she refused to pay. She was then held for fourteen days in solitary confinement. She subsequently continued as a member of the WSPU, later giving birth to a daughter whom she named Emmeline. This occurred two months after the death of her husband and she subsequently went to live with her sister before moving to Northampton in 1948 where her daughter was employed. She remained a member of the Labour party there until the end of her life, as well as belonging to the Northampton Business & Professional Women's Club. Lacon was also a member of the Women's Freedom League and birth-control campaigner. She died in 1968.

This collection is available for research. Readers are advised to contact The Women's Library in advance of their first visit.

Donated in Jan 1987 by the executors of Annie Lacon's daughter (Emmeline Davies) in accordance with Emmeline's wishes.

Fawcett Library Catalogue c.1970