Annie Barnes

Annie Barnes (née Cappuccio; 6 December 1886 – 22 February 1982) was a British-Italian socialist and suffragist.

Life and suffragist action Barnes was born in Limehouse, Tower Hamlets, London, on 6 October 1886.

On 8 April 1913, she went with Gertrude Shaw and Ethel Spark to the top of The Monument (to the Great Fire of London in Pudding Lane) throwing 'Votes for Women' leaflets down. The Times and Daily Mirror the next day printed pictures of a large crowd who gathered to watch, including men from Billingsgate fish market nearby. Barnes convinced the waiting police that she could not have climbed the 311 steps inside and had just gone up a little then returned. Shaw and Spark meantime hung a purple, white and green flag and a black banner "Death or Victory" from the top and were arrested and later released. Barnes enjoyed the many suffrage meetings and she found it difficult to refuse Pankhurst's leadership. She did refuse to be smuggled into the Houses of Parliament to drop flour on the prime ministers head, but she later dropped leaflets from London Bridge. She was stopped by the police but again managed to talk her way out of an arrest.

She married Albert Barnes in 1919. They had no children of their own, but cared for Annie's younger siblings after her father remarried. Barnes talks extensively about Sylvia Pankhurst as well as her work for the Labour Party.

Death and legacy Barnes died on 22 February 1982 in East Ham, London, England.