Issued 1December 2016

For immediate release Press release

‘Our Enid’ – a long-overdue biography sees the light of day

Today sees the launch of a long-overdue biography of a truly remarkable woman, Enid Stacy, written by her niece, Angela Tuckett. Welcoming its publication the distinguished historian, Sheila Rowbotham, said: ‘Enid Stacy was a tireless propagandist for socialism and women’s freedom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Thanks to the Working Class Movement Library, Angela Tuckett’s pioneering biography which she was unable to complete in her lifetime is now available in a book with beautiful photographs from the Library’s collection’.

Enid campaigned for socialism for all – men, women and children. She was a founder member of the Independent Labour Party, a champion of full equality for women, a campaigner for all children to have the same educational and developmental opportunities, and a brave critic of the Boer War when ‘war fever’ was at its height.

She shared platforms with her now more famous contemporaries Keir Hardie, Eleanor Marx and Tom Mann. Enid toured the country speaking in halls large and small, as well as on platforms outdoors or from a Clarion Van - an inspiring orator, who according to Mann, ‘could speak to thousands in the open air as though she was talking to each in their own home’.

She was an amazing woman and the Working Class Movement Library is proud to publish her biography. Angela Tuckett was also a remarkable woman – author, historian, diarist, song writer, theatrical producer (with sister Joan), solicitor, political activist, lecturer, feminist, qualified pilot and international hockey player. After her husband’s death in 1979, Angela started seriously to research the life of her aunt with the encouragement of Eddie and Ruth Frow, founders of the Working Class Movement Library. However, after rejections by publishers of her early draft, she put it on one side and never returned to it.

It was the wish of Ruth and Eddiethat one day the biography of Enid Stacy would see the light of day. After a lot of hard work Angela’s draft has been edited to a publishable standard. Everyone at the Library is delighted with the result.

Copies of Our Enid are available from the Library at a special introductory price of £5. They can also be bought online at

-ENDS-

Notes to editors:

1. Enid Stacy, 1868-1903. Although she died at only 35, Enid (affectionately called ‘Our Enid’ by her admirers) had won the deep regard of the labour movement’s prominent activists. As well as the activities listed above, she was a writer of pamphlets on war and peace, socialism, education and women’s rights.It was as a speaker that she was best remembered by many. In March 1895, for example, Enid spoke at 42 meetings and travelled 935 miles, according to her diary. She worked mainly in the Midlands, the North of England, Scotland and Wales but also undertook two lecture tours of the United States.

2. Angela Tuckett, 1906-1994.Author of histories of the Scottish Trades Union Congress and the Scottish carters’ union. The Library holds her papers and a collection of tapes of interviews she undertook in compiling her publications.

In addition to the career and activities listed above, Angela was a delegate to the London Trades Council, on the Executive Committee of Labour Monthly, on the editorial committee of the William Morris Society, active in the International Concertina Association and the English Folk-Dance and Song Society, and municipal and county council candidate for the Swindon Communist Party.

3. The Working Class Movement Library was founded by the late Ruth and Edmund Frow in the 1950s and is now acknowledged as one of the most important collections of historical material on radical working class organisations in the country. The Library is open to the public on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday afternoons. At other times visitors are welcome to make appointments to view or use the collection. Admission to the Library is free.

Working Class Movement Library, 51 Crescent, Salford M5 4WX

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