Annie Wood Besant (1847-1933) was a prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer, and orator. She was born in London into a middle-class family of Irish origin. She fought for the causes she thought were right, starting with freedom of thought, women's rights, secularism (she was a leading member of the National Secular Society), birth control, Fabian socialism, and workers' rights. Soon, she was earning a small weekly wage by writing a column for the National Reformer, the newspaper of the National Secular Society. She was also one of the leading figures in Theosophy.