Annie Leigh Browne (14 March 1851 – 8 March 1936) was a

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

educationist and

suffragist Suffrage, political franchise, or simply franchise, is the right to vote in public, political elections and referendums (although the term is sometimes used for any right to vote). In some languages, and occasionally in English, the right to v ...

. She co-founded

College Hall, London College Hall is a fully catered hall of residence of the University of London. It is situated on Malet Street in the Bloomsbury district of London, United Kingdom. It is an intercollegiate hall, and as such provides accommodation for full-time stud ...

, and funded and worked to get women elected to local government.

Life

Browne was born in

Bridgwater Bridgwater is a large historic market town and civil parish in Somerset, England. Its population currently stands at around 41,276 as of 2022. Bridgwater is at the edge of the Somerset Levels, in level and well-wooded country. The town lies alon ...

in 1851. Both of her grandfathers fought at the

Battle of Trafalgar The Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) was a naval engagement between the British Royal Navy and the combined fleets of the French and Spanish Navies during the War of the Third Coalition (August–December 1805) of the Napoleonic Wars (180 ...

.Sidmouth Philanthropist
28 February 2012, Diana Bowerman, Sidmouth Herald, Retrieved 12 January 2017 She, her parents and her sister Mary moved to Clifton near Bristol. There she was educated by tutors and governesses before her family moved to London where she attended Queens College on

Harley Street Harley Street is a street in Marylebone, Central London, which has, since the 19th century housed a large number of private specialists in medicine and surgery. It was named after Edward Harley, 2nd Earl of Oxford and Earl Mortimer.< ...

for a year in 1868. That same year

John Beddoe John Beddoe FRS FRAI (21 September 1826 – 19 July 1911) was one of the most prominent English ethnologists in Victorian Britain. Life Beddoe was born in Bewdley, Worcestershire, and educated at University College, London (BA (London)) and ...

and his wife. who were both friends with

Mary Carpenter Mary Carpenter (3 April 1807 – 14 June 1877) was an English educational and social reformer. The daughter of a Unitarian minister, she founded a ragged school and reformatories, bringing previously unavailable educational opportunitie ...

. hosted what was said to be the first women's suffrage meeting at their house in 1868. Browne attended and this was the start of long commitment to the suffrage cause.Jane Martin, ‘Browne, Annie Leigh (1851–1936)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 200
accessed 12 Jan 2017
/ref> The two Browne sisters also worked with

Octavia Hill Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a fa ...

, and with

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

and

Henrietta Barnett Dame Henrietta Octavia Weston Barnett, DBE (''née'' Rowland; 4 May 1851 – 10 June 1936) was an English social reformer, educationist, and author. She and her husband, Samuel Augustus Barnett, founded the first "University Settlement" at Toyn ...

Toynbee Hall Toynbee Hall is a charitable institution that works to address the causes and impacts of poverty in the East End of London and elsewhere. Established in 1884, it is based in Commercial Street, Spitalfields, and was the first university-affiliat ...

. In 1880 she and Mary Stewart Kilgour campaigned for women's education; their work (with inputs from Mary Thomasina Browne - later Lady Lockyer - and

Henrietta Müller Frances Henrietta Müller (1846 – 4 January 1906) was a British women's rights activist and theosophist. Biography Müller was born in Valparaíso, Chile to William Müller, a German businessman, and Maria Henrietta Müller who was English.Eli ...

) and Browne's money led to the opening of College Hall in Byng Place in 1882. It later (1932) moved to nearby

Malet Street Malet Street is a street in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, Central London, England. It runs between Torrington Place and the British Museum, parallel to Gower Street and Tottenham Court Road. History The street is named after S ...

. In November 1888 the "Society for Promoting the Return of Women as County Councillors" was formed by twelve women. Browne provided early funding and she,

Eva McLaren Eva Maria McLaren (née Müller; 1852 – 16 August 1921) was an English suffragist, writer and campaigner. She served as Superintendent of the Franchise department of the World's Woman's Christian Temperance Union. She was actively associated wit ...

, the Marchioness of Aberdeen, Louisa Temple Mallett and

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millicent ...

founder

Millicent Garret Fawcett Dame Millicent Garrett Fawcett (née Garrett; 11 June 1847 – 5 August 1929) was an English politician, writer and feminist. She campaigned for women's suffrage by legal change and in 1897–1919 led Britain's largest women's rights associati ...

were key members. It later (1893) became the "

Women's Local Government Society The Women's Local Government Society was a British campaign group which aimed to get women into local government. Its initial focus was on county councils but its remit later covered other local government roles such as school boards. History The ...

," and its aim was to get women elected to local government. An early victory was the election of two women,

Jane Cobden Emma Jane Catherine Cobden (28 April 1851 – 7 July 1947), known as Jane Cobden, was a British Liberal politician who was active in many radical causes. A daughter of the Victorian reformer and statesman Richard Cobden, she was an early ...

and Lady

Margaret Sandhurst Margaret Mansfield, Baroness Sandhurst (née Fellowes, ca. 1828 - 7 January 1892) was a noted suffragist who was one of the first women elected to a city council in the United Kingdom. She was also a prominent spiritualist. Personal life Sandhur ...

, to the

London County Council London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today kno ...

. This was possible because of the wording of the

Local Government Act 1888 Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States * Local government, a form of public administration, usually the lowest tier of administrat ...

which did not disqualify women candidates. A later court case determined that this was a mistake. Campaigns were unsuccessfully started to reverse the court's interpretation. However, in 1894 new legislation did allow married women to stand for school boards. Browne was a member of the Union of Practical Suffragists' executive committee in 1898, a member of the Central Society for Women's Suffrage (and its successor, the London Society for Women's Suffrage), and in February 1907 took part in the ' Mud March' organised by the

National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies The National Union of Women Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), also known as the ''suffragists'' (not to be confused with the suffragettes) was an organisation founded in 1897 of women's suffrage societies around the United Kingdom. In 1919 it was ren ...

. Browne died in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in 1936 of bronchitus.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Browne, Annie Leigh 1851 births 1936 deaths People from Bridgwater British suffragists