Dollan was born on Springburn Road in Springburn, Glasgow on 16 August 1887 to Anne Wilkinson and Henry Moir, a blacksmith in the locomotive works. She was one of eleven children. She attended school locally until the age of eleven before being forced to leave due to family poverty. She also attended the Socialist Sunday Schools, where she "graduated as a Socialist". On leaving school, she went first to work in a factory before becoming a Post Officetelephone operator. During this latter job, she joined the Women's Labour League and assisted Mary Reid Macarthur in creating a women's post office trade union. She joined the Independent Labour Party aged 18, and then the Women's Social and Political Union. She met Patrick Dollan, a journalist and member of the Independent Labour Party, via the Clarion Scouts. They were married on 20 September 1912, and their only child, James, was born in 1913. He was exempted from religious instruction at school. James also became a journalist.
Agnes Dollan became politically active during the Red Clydeside period of Glasgow's history as an organiser of the 1915 Glasgow Rent Strikes alongside Mary Barbour, Helen Crawfurd, Mary Laird and Mary Jeff. She worked to link the rent strikes movement with peace campaigns, and as Treasurer of Glasgow Women's Housing Association led the campaign against rent increases imposed by landlords. Dollan was jailed briefly in 1917 for protesting against high rents. She was a member of The Women's Peace Crusade in Glasgow. She became a prominent figure in Glasgow politics and spoke at the 1917 May Day demo in Glasgow Green. She was a member of the Women's Social and Political Union and the Women's Labour League.
Political career
After joining the Independent Labour Party around 1915, Dollan became the first female Labour candidate to stand for election to Glasgow City Council in January 1919. On 13 December 1921, she was elected in a by-election as the councillor for Springburn. She successfully stood again for Council in 1922 and held the position until 1928. She became a Justice of the Peace in 1928. During 1924, she wrote in The Sunday Post about the amendment of the Representation of the People Act 1918, clearly linking domestic interests as a good reason for all women to have the franchise. She was the first Labour candidate to contest Dumfriesshire in the United Kingdom general election of 1924 however she was unsuccessful. She served on the Labour Party National Executive from 1922 to 1928 and resumed her seat in the 1930s after a period of illness prevented her from participating in political activities. In 1933, she spoke at the National Conference of Labour Women, arguing that there should be more women candidates for the Labour Party. She fought against the removal of the ILP from the Labour Party, however following the split she was appointed the first president of the Scottish Socialist Party's women's council in 1933. She campaigned to be the Labour Party candidate for Leith in the 1935 United Kingdom general election. Her key discussion points were the prospect of another war, the Unemployment Bill, and "poverty in the midst of plenty". The election was ultimately contested by David Cleghorn Thomson. Her husband Patrick served as Lord Provost of Glasgow from 1938 to 1941 however when she attended events with him Agnes retained her own identity. Harry McShane wrote in his autobiography:
Anti-war activism
Alongside Helen Crawfurd and others, she established both the Women's Peace Crusade in 1916 and the Glasgow branch of the Women's International League in 1915. Both noted speakers, Dollan and Crawfurd travelled around Scotland spreading the word about the League. She took exception to the defence of women being used as a reason for war. In 1922, Dollan and Mary Barbour spoke in Langside, discussing "the Citizenship of women and bearing on world peace, disarmament, and international justice and freedom". Dollan later modified her anti-war stance in response to World War II, stating that: She later became a member of the Moral Re-Armament Movement.
