Annie Besant was a trade unionist, socialist, theosophist, women’s rights activist and philanthropist. Besant was a leading socialist and successful public speaker, filling halls across Britain for the National Secular Society.

She was a prominent member of the Fabian society and the Marxist Social Democratic Federation (SDF). In 1877, she was prosecuted for publishing a book by birth control campaigner Charles Knowlton. A year later she published her own pamphlet, The Law of Population which set out her belief that access to birth control was essential because of its potential to alleviate poverty. She was the first woman to publicly endorse the use of birth control.

Besant later turned to theosophy, and moved to India where she became involved in the struggle for Indian independence and helped launch the Home Rule League. In 1913, she joined the Indian National Congress, becoming its first woman president in 1917.