[Comic] Lilian Wolfe (1875-1974)

Lilian Wolfe was born on December 22, 1875, in London. Hired by the General Post Office, she became a member of the Civil Service Socialist Society.

Having joined the Women’s Freedom League but considering granting women the right to vote as a mere « palliative », she joined the anarchist movement in 1913. She participated in the revival of The Voice of Labor on May 1, 1914.

Thomas Keell, the typesetter and editor of the anarchist newspaper Freedom, became her companion.

The Voice of Labor published an article in favor of civil disobedience following the introduction of compulsory military conscription in 1916. Lilian Wolfe and Thomas Keell were arrested and convicted of violating the Defense of the Realm Act of 1914. Keell chose prison rather than pay a fine. Lilian, pregnant, paid the fine for her release.

Spain and the World was launched in 1936 by Vernon Richards, Thomas Keell, and Marie-Louise Berneri, while Lilian administered it.

Until Thomas Keell’s death on June 26, 1938, she lived at Whiteway Colony in the « guiding light of Leo Tolstoy ».

Still active, she was the managing director of the Freedom Press bookstore, a position she held until the age of 95. A member of the National Council for Civil Liberties and War Resisters International, she died of a stroke on April 22, 1974.