A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O PQ R S T U V W XYZ
" He who buys what he does not want , will soon want what he cannot buy"
Anne Matthews
Her Name Is Anne
* Anne Adkin
..... FIRST woman to win one of the categories of the National Lorry Drivers competition in December 1973
* Anne Armstrong
born 1927
..... American who was the FIRST woman co-chairman of the National Republic Committee from 1971 to 1973 and from 1976 to 77 was the FIRST woman American Ambassador to London. In 1990 she was the FIRST female non-executive director of Glaxo
* Anne Ashberry
neé Hannah Annenberg
born 1894
...... FIRST woman member of the Society of Engineers in 1924. She was the daughter of Israel and Leah Annenberg of Jewish Russian origin. In later life she received prizes for inventions such as a new vacuum cleaner and became an expert on Miniature Gardens and wrote many books on the subject
( was she the first to do this ??). She also appeared on Radio talking about her subject. She used the name Anne and never married. Her niece was Marjorie Fanny Ashberry who went to Prague in February 1939 to visit a Jewish family and brought documents and jewellery out sewn into a fur coat for their son, who was working with her in Paris ( extra information received from Lesley Hayward whose mother was Marjorie Fanny Ashberry - with thanks)
* Anne Askew
born 1521 died 1546
..... English Protestant who was martyred for her Reformed beliefs. She was born the daughter of an English Midlands squire and grew up in a substantial family house at south Kelsey on the Wolds near Caistor. Around 1536 the new movement, the Reformation, came into English society and was encouraged by the king, largely for his own ends. Throughout the land old abbeys were torn down, nuns and monks were thrown out and an English translation of the Bible was set up in every parish church. Families and villages were divided between Catholicism and Protestantism but Anne's loyalties were quite clear, she was a Protestant and wanted all men to share her faith. In 1540 she entered into an arranged marriage but her husband was a Catholic and eventually the marriage broke down and she went to London. Whist employed at the court of Catherine Parr she was arrested for her heretical opinions. She was charged with heresy, interrogated, tortured on the rack and burned in Smithfield. When the day of her execution arrived she was so weakened by her ill-treatment that she had to be carried to the stake in a chair but she died as she had lived, bravely and never once wavering in her faith - the FIRST woman to be tortured in the Tower Of London
* Anne Ayres - Sister
..... American who was the FIRST Episcopal nun in America where she helped to found St Luke's Hospital in New York City
* Anne Begg
..... Britain's FIRST wheelchair-bound MP who represented Aberdeen South for Labour in 1997
* Anne Isobel Blunt
born 1837 died 1917
..... FIRST English woman to travel in the Arabian peninsula
* Anne Booth
..... FIRST woman Divisional Commander in Warrington, Manchester in 1996
* Anne Dudley Bradstreet
born 1612 died 1672
..... English-born American Puritan poet who was considered to be the FIRST English poet in America. In 1650 her The Tenth Muse Lately Sprung Up In America was published to great acclaim
* Anne Charlton
..... one of the world's FIRST professors of cancer health education when she headed the Cancer Research Campaign's education and child studies research at Manchester University in 1996. She was given the title in recognition of her extensive studies into smoking, health and children. and pioneered the whole field of cancer education for children
* Anne Claxton
..... FIRST woman to qualify as a blacksmith when in February 1980 she received the certificate of the Farriers Company
* Anne Jemima Clough
born 1820 died 1892
..... head of the FIRST Hall of Residence for women in Cambridge which had five students when it began in 1871. Nine years later it became Newnham College. She was a pioneer of education for girls and in 1841 opened a girls school in Liverpool and another at Ambleside in the Lake District when she moved there in 1852. In 1867 she helped to start the North of England council for promoting higher education for women
* Anne Dorothy Feversham
Countess of Feversham
born July 31st 1910 died 1995
..... a legendary figure in the hunting field and the FIRST woman appointed to the Committee of the Masters of Foxhounds Association, an appropriate tribute to her standing in the hunting world
* Anne Godwin
neé Beatrice Anne
born 1897 died 1992
..... FIRST woman secretary of a mixed trade union
* Anne Hutchinson
..... FIRST female religious leader in the American colonies ( see also November 7th 1637)
* Anne Gulvin and Alice Hutchings
..... in 1896 they began work as the first women gardeners at Kew Gardens after they had graduated from Swanley Horticultural College. They were entered in the register as 'boys' earning 10s per week. Anne had to retire when she married in 1900
* Anne Hercus and Margaret Shields
..... FIRST two women Cabinet Ministers in New Zealand when Anne was made Minister of Social Welfare, Minister of Police and Minister of Women's Affairs and Margaret became Minister of Customs and Minister of Consumer Affairs
* Anne Hunt
..... FIRST woman to serve with the river police when she began a six-month voluntary course with the Thames Divisional headquarters of the Metropolitan Police at Wapping
* Anne Krueger
..... FIRST woman Vice-President of the World Bank in 1984 since its foundation 38 years previously. She was responsible for economics and research and had a seat on the management committee, the Bank's governing body
* Anne Morrow Lindbergh
..... FIRST woman to be granted a glider pilot's license in America - 1930
* Anne Lister
..... Yorkshire lesbian known as Gentleman Jack who was the FIRST to climb to the summit of Vignemale, the highest peak in the French Pyrenees
* Anne Loughlin
born 1894 died 1979
..... FIRST woman President of the General Council of the Trade Union Congress in 1943 and was the FIRST trade unionist to be created DBE. She was also the FIRST woman head of a mixed union as General Secretary of the Tailors and Garment Workers Union
* Anne MacFarlane
….. FIRST woman to hold the post of Master of the Court of Protection when she was sworn in at the House of Lords by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Hailsham in 1982/83. The Court was responsible for looking after the affairs of the senile and those with mental disabilities
* Anne McLaren
born 1927
..... FIRST woman to hold the post of Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society in its 300-year history when appointed in 1991. She was trained in zoology and became a world expert on mammalian genetics and carried out crucial work on the development of human embryos
* Anne Frasier Norton
..... the first American woman to be given a full military funeral
* Anne Owens
..... FIRST woman chief inspector of prisons in July 2001. Previously she was the director of the human rights campaign group Justice, and before that was general secretary of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
* Anne Paron and Carlen Sanderson
….. the FIRST two dustwomen ( female sanitation workers) in New York when employed as ‘emptiers of bins’ at the city's Department of Sanitation. Anne and Carlen were among the 137 new recruits which started training in how to collect rubbish and their hiring caused controversy amongst the 8,000 dustmen already employed. At the heart of the controversy was a newly-designed physical fitness test which the dustmen say was deliberately rigged to make it possible for women to qualify and their union challenged the new test in court. Miss Sanderson, who gave up a clean, air-conditioned career as a copy-editor for a firm of accountants because collecting rubbish paid more, said that she did not expect it to be any easier for them than it was for the first fire women or the first policewomen. Miss Paron said that it was the first decent job she had ever been offered. A "sensitivity consultant" also had to be hired to teach the men the best way to behave when their ranks were swelled by women
* Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise - Princess
born August 15th 1950
..... FIRST Royal winning jockey in 1986, FIRST Royal to take part in Olympic 3 day eventing, FIRST British Royal to visit Russia (1973) Vietnam (1994) FIRST member of the British Royal family to visit South Africa in 50 years, FIRST Royal to wear jeans in public, in 1994 she was thought to be the FIRST member of the British Royal family to speak directly to a camera in a commercial advertisement, FIRST woman member of the Royal Yacht Squadron in Clowes ( the world's most exclusive yachting club), FIRST woman President of the International Equestrian Federation, FIRST woman President of the historic Cheshire show in its 161 year history and the FIRST member of the Royal family to take part in a television quiz show when she appeared on Question of Sport in 1987. In November 2002 she became the FIRST member of the Royal Family to be convicted of a criminal offence when she admitted a charge under the Dangerous Dogs Act after one of her pets bit two children in Windsor Great Park, London
* Anne Rasch
neé Anne Elizabeth Somerset
born 1st November 1929 died 1995
..... her gardens at Heale House in Wiltshire won the FIRST annual Historic Houses Association Garden of the Year Award - 1984. Her husband inherited Heale House in the 1950s and Anne recreated the gardens. They are now renowned for their beauty and are visited from enthusiasts from around the world, especially Japan
* Anne Robinson
born 26th September 1944
….. FIRST woman ever in Fleet Street to be appointed to a position whereby she edited the paper three times a week in the Editor's absence when she was made Assistant Editor ( No.3 on the Daily Mirror) in 1986 (P/L)
* Anne Roper
..... English woman President of the Association of Men of Kent and Kentish Men and Fair Maids in 1979. She was a well-known historian of the Cinque Ports and Romney Marsh, had written a great many parish and local histories and had been a member of the Association for 50 years
* Anne Shelton
neé Patricia Sibley
born 10th November 1923 died 31st July 1994
..... FIRST British woman to sing the English words to the song Lili Marlene. Her recording of it sold more than million copies and it became her signature tune although the words had to be changed from the original German lyric which was about a prostitute and it was seen as unfitting for Anne, at her young age, to sing about such things. The words were written especially for her by Tommy Connor. She carried on working through the war and when Glenn Miller arrived in England with his orchestra she did six shows with him and also in the same year did a show with Bing Crosby. In 1951 she went on a tour of America taking in Las Vegas, Texas, San Francisco, Hollywood etc and opened the world's greatest night club at that time, the Copacabana in New York where she topped the bill for four weeks. In 1990 she was awarded the OBE for her work with the Not Forgotten Association, a charity for disabled ex-service personnel from all the wars
* Anne Stephens
Air Commandant Dame
born November 4th 1912 died 2000
..... head of the Women's Royal Air Force from 1960 to 1963. During the Second World War she was only the second WAAF officer to go to Normandy and afterwards, in 1950, became the FIRST woman to command an RAF station when she took charge of Hawkinge, on the Kent coast, the site of the WRAF's officer cadet training unit. In 1961 she was appointed DBE
* Anne Stokes
….. FIRST female chartered surveyor to be taken on by the business empire Blue Circle Industries. In 1992 at the age of 26, she was named Young Career Woman of the Year when she won the contest for women aged 25 to 35 which had been organised by the UK Federation of Business and Professional Women and the NatWest Bank. She was the youngest of the 11 finalists, which included an electronics instructor, a geophysicist, a detective sergeant in the drugs squad and an airline general manager. Her prize was £1,000 and she hoped that her award would encourage more women to consider a career in industry
* Anne Warburton
..... FIRST British woman ambassador when appointed as Ambassador to Denmark on March 11th 1976
* Anne West
..... FIRST woman to be appointed a partner in Cazenove, London's most traditional stockbrokers - February 8th 1994
* Anne Whiteman
nee Elizabeth Anne Osborn
born February 10th 1918 died 2000
….. historian who became the FIRST Representative of the Women's Colleges in 1960 ( an office which was soon transformed into that of Assessor). She was also the FIRST woman at Oxford, other that the principals of women's colleges, to make an impact on the central workings of the university and on its governance
….. Salford Council's FIRST woman director when she was appointed to one of its top jobs in March 1999. At the time she was senior assistant director of community and social services and became director on the retirement of Peter Hewitt. Mrs Williams had worked in Salford for almost 20 years and had held her current post since 1994. After studying at Glasgow and Manchester Universities she specialised in work with children and families, with social services and for a children's charity in York, Liverpool and Manchester
* Anne Winter
..... FIRST woman train driver in Britain