MRS. BESANT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 209, 28 May 1908, Page 7

MRS. BESANT.

LECTURING TOUR.'

BY TELECBAPn—PRESS ASSOCIATION—COrvniGIIT " ' (Rcc. May 28, 0.50, a.m.) - , /. Fremsntlo; MayV* ' , Mrs. Annie-Besant has arrived on a lecturing tour..-•> . Mrs. Annie Besant, President of the Theosophical Society, author and lecturer on re-' ligious, philosophical, and -scientific subjects, was horn on 1, 1547. In 18G7 she 'married the Rev. Prank" Besant, a Lincolnshire vicar, and" in 1873' legally separated from, him. Slip; was educated privatoly'in England, Ger:many, and France, and'took honoiu's jn Botany Preliminary Science Examination, London University, and South Kensington,, in 1874. Mrs." Besant worked in' the Free Thought and Radical movements led by Charles Bradlaugh, M.P., was co-editor with, him . of the " National Reformer," and wiis prominent in' the Labour and Socialist movements. She became a member of the Fabian Society and the Social' Democratic Federation, and took an active part in Trades Union work among unskilled labourers. With Herbert Burrows she led the great match, strike'to a successful conclusion. She also aided the defence of public meeting in London. ' Fnyn 1887 to 1890, Mrs. Besant was a member of tho London School Board (for Tower Hamlets), but* refused reelection. She joined the Tlieosophical Society in 1889, became a devoted pupil of Mmp. Blavatsky, and has travelled to all parts'of the. globe in its service. In 1893 sho founded the Control Hindu Callege at Benare, and in 1904 Bontral Hindu College at Benaros, and in 1904 tho "Central Hindu Girls' School, Benares. Her' publications are legion. •