Anna Munro

Anna Gillies Macdonald Munro (4 October 1881 – 11 September 1962) was an active campaigner for temperance and the women's suffrage movement in the United Kingdom. Munro organised[1] and was the secretary of the Women's Freedom League campaigning in Scotland. She settled in Thatcham after the first world war.

Anna Munro
Scottish secretary
Born(1881-10-04)4 October 1881
Glasgow, Scotland,
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Died11 September 1962(1962-09-11) (aged 80)
Padworth, England, United Kingdom
NationalityBritish
Occupationcampaigner
EmployerWomen's Freedom League
Known forAnna Munro-Ashman
Spouse(s)Sidney Ashman
Childrenyes

Life and work

Anna was born in Glasgow, on 4 October 1881, to Margaret Ann MacVean, and Evan Macdonald Munro, a school master; following her mother's death in 1892 she moved to Dunfermline where she was cared for by an uncle and aunt.[2] She became involved with the Wesleyan Methodist Sisters of the People in London working with the poor. She then joined the Women's Social and Political Union and founded a branch in Dunfermline in 1906,.[3] and won support from socialist leaders and Labour's Keir Hardie.[1] In 1907 a row between the membership and the Pankhursts led to a split in the WSPU and as a result the more democratic Women's Freedom League was formed and Munro was elected to be the Secretary of the WFL Scottish Council.[4] She was briefly imprisoned in 1908 for her protesting. She accompanied Amy Sanderson, WLF executive committee member and fellow prisoner, on a speaking tour around the country, raising awareness and funds for the militant movement,[5] and with hunger strikers Alice Paul and Edith New at Arbroath.[6] Later Munro participated in the protests around the 1911 Censuswhich the suffragettes boycotted.[3]

She married Sidney Ashman in 1913, and though she legally took the surname Munro-Ashman she was still known as Anna Munro in her work, and she continued to be active working for women's rights throughout her life. She was also a socialist and temperance campaigner.[3] The Munro-Ashman's lived in Reading, but then moved to Thatcham where Anna was one of the first parish councillors in 1919 and they raised a family at Park Farm.[7]

Death and legacy

On 11 September 1962, she died in Padworth, Berkshire.[3] Homes in Thatcham are to be named Munro because she was one of the first two women Parish councillors in Thatcham.[7] In 2018 the Glasgow Women's Library commissioned Lucie Hearn to create a short film about Anna Munro to celebrate 100 years since some women got the vote.[8]

See also

References
  1. "Pathfinder: Suffragettes: Women & the Vote". SCRAN. Scran ID: 001-000-101-855-L.
  2. "Roll of honour: Ten Scottish women who fought for the right to vote". The National. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  3. Virginia Russell, 'Munro, Anna Gillies Macdonald (1881–1962)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/63880, accessed 13 December 2011
  4. "TheGlasgowStory: Anna Munro". www.theglasgowstory.com. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  5. A., M. (19 March 1908). "Scottish Notes". The Vote. p. 444.
  6. Browne, Sarah F. (2007). Making the vote count : the Arbroath Women Citizens' Association, 1931-1945. Abertay Historical Society. Dundee: Abertay Historical Society. p. 1825. ISBN 0-900019-45-X. OCLC 191091531.
  7. Fort, Linda (13 August 2016). "Thatcham homes named after suffragette Anna Munroe". getreading. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
  8. "Anna Munro". Lucia Hearn. Retrieved 19 June 2020.

Further reading
  • The Women's Library Special Collections Catalogue, London Metropolitan University, NA1541, accessed 13 December 2011.
  • Elizabeth Crawford, "Anna Gillies Macdonald Munro", in The women's suffrage movement: a reference guide, 1866-1928, Routledge, 2001, pp 430–431.
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