Images Dated 28th July 2008

The Burning of Richard Woodman and nine other protestant martyrs, at Lewes in Sussex

The Burning of ten protestant martyrs, Lewes, Sussex, 1557. Seventeen Protestant martyrs were burned at the stake between 1555 and 1557 during the persecutions of the reign of Queen Mary. The victims on this occasion, the 22nd June 1557, were Richard Woodman, George Stevens, Alexander Hosman, William Mainard, Thomasina Wood, Margery Morris, James Morris, Denis Burges, Ann Ashton and Mary Groves

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Annie Besant, British socialist and theosophist, 1926. Artist: Brill

Annie Besant, British socialist and theosophist, 1926. An active campaigner for women's and workers rights, Annie Besant (nee Wood) was a powerful public speaker and a prolific writer. She was converted to theosophy, which holds that all religions are an attempt by man to ascertain the Divine, in 1889 after reading The Secret Doctrine by HP Blavatsky, one of the founders of the Theosophical Society. Besant attempted to understand the universe through clairvoyance. A print from the front cover of Lansbury's labour Weekly, 11th December 1926

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