People Australia

Annie (Annabel) Riley, née Kirk (1858-1931) cotton powerloom weaver, political activist and charity worker.

Birth: 15 December 1858 at Boa Island in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, daughter of James Kirk (1811-1871), farmer, and Eleanor (Ellen), née Cousins (1827-1905). Marriage: 30 December 1881 at Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, to Edward Riley (1859-1943), plasterer, later politician, born at Glasgow. They had four daughters and four sons. Death: 26 April 1931 in her usual residence, “Rosebank” at Bennett Street, Newtown, Sydney, New South Wales. Religion: Presbyterian. 

• Apparently always known as Annie, in 1881 she was a cotton weaver, living with her widowed mother and siblings, at Glasgow in Scotland.
• Arrived in NSW with her husband and sister Susan aboard the Assaye on 3 September 1883. Her mother and her brother John Kirk also came to Australia.
• Annie took a keen interest in politics and was a foundation member of the Australian Labor Party in NSW. She was a pioneer member of the NSW Women’s Central Organising Committee of ALP.
• Husband was Labor member of the Australian House of Representatives for South Sydney from 1910 to December 1931. Annie was active in charitable work.
• Cause of death: secondary cancer of lung (4 months), primary cancer of uterus.
• One son Edward Charles Riley (1892-1969) was Labor Member of the House of Representatives for Cook, NSW. A daughter Hope Emerald Riley (1895-1957)) was mayoress of Newtown, (Sydney). Another daughter Ellen Cousins Riley (Nellie), later Duncan (1885-1922) was the first wife of Nationalist Senator Walter Leslie Duncan (1883-1947).

Sources
Australian Worker, 29 April 1931, p 4; Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1931; H. J. Gibbney & Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 2 (Canberra, 1987), p 214.