Annie Besant (1847-1933)

Annie Besant was born in London on 01 October 1847. Her father, William Page Wood, was half-Irish and half-English. Her mother, Emily Morris Wood, however, was of pure Irish descent, and Annie says in her own autobiography, "the Irish tongue is music to my ear and the Irish nature dear to my heart".

Annie joined the Theosophical Society in May 1889 and became Madame Blavatsky’s devoted pupil and helper. She became a prominent worker in the Society and after the death of Col. Olcott in 1907, was elected President of the Society, which position she held till her death on 21 September 1933.

Annie Besant came to India on 16 November 1893 to attend the Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society at Adyar in Madras. In 1898 she established the Central Hindu College at Benares which later formed the nucleus of the Benares Hindu University.

After making Madras her home, Annie Besant founded a weekly newspaper Commonweal in January 1914. In June the same year she purchased the Madras Standard and renamed it New India, which, thereafter, became her chosen organ for her tempestuous propaganda for India’s freedom. She named this freedom "Home Rule" for India. In August 1917 she was made the President of the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.

In 1917 she established the Indian Boy Scouts’ Association and this was united to the International Movement according to Sir Robert Baden Powell’s request in 1921. She was made Honorary Commissioner for India and in 1932 was awarded the Order of the Silver Wolf—the greatest honour that the Scout Movement could offer.

In 1917 she started the Women’s Indian Association to which she gave her powerful support. Her health began to give way slowly and she passed away on 21 September 1933. She herself desired as her epitaph only the simple words "She tried to follow Truth".