Ethel Snowden - Early Life

Early Life

Ethel Annakin was the daughter of Richard Annakin, a building contractor. Her father also became involved in politics and later served as Alderman of Harrogate, becoming Mayor of the town in 1930-31. She is described by Philip Snowden's biographer Colin Cross as a "woman of strong will and striking good looks". She trained as a teacher at Edge Hill College in Liverpool, and while there joined the congregation of radical preacher Rev Dr C.F. Aked; after listening to his sermon on "Can a Man be a Christian on £1 a week?" she became a socialist and joined with Aked's social work in the slums of Liverpool promoting teetotalism. She also joined the Fabian Society.

According to her future husband, the Labour politician Philip Snowden, they had met at a Fabian meeting in Leeds probably in about 1903, although Mary Agnes Hamilton thought they met at the Bradford house of William and Martha Leach. Harrogate, a spa town not dependent on the milling industry, was regarded as a higher class area and it was rare for someone of Ethel's background to be a socialist. She took her first lecture on behalf of the Yorkshire Independent Labour Party at Keighley Labour Institute in September 1903, possibly arranged by Snowden. In 1904 she started working as a schoolteacher at Walverden School in Nelson, Lancashire which was only 9 miles from Snowden's home at Cowling, and became a regular visitor, although Philip Snowden's mother Martha could not abide to meet her, thinking her pretentious and patronising.