Annie Elizabeth Day was born on 16th September 1893 at 7 Weymouth Street in the parish of Shoreditch, at the time part of the county of Middlesex, the third of eight children of George Frederick William Day (1860-1930) and Martha Emily Alger (1866-1939). Annie's elder sister Charlotte Elizabeth Day had died in infancy two years previously. She was baptised on 8th October 1893 in St Leonard's Church, Shoreditch, made famous in the nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons' ("When I grow rich', say the bells of Shoreditch"), and latterly as the setting for the television series 'Rev'.

By the Census of 31st March 1901 the family, George and Martha with children Emily, Annie, Amelia (listed as 'Millie'), George and Alfred, were living at 4 George Street, Shoreditch, and Annie's father was employed as a Sewerman.

 The 1911 Census found the family living at 12 Poole Street in Hoxton. This street, unremarkable at the time, found itself at the centre of the film industry in the 1930s, with a former power station for the Great Northern & City Railway in the street eventually becoming the home of Gainsborough Studios, makers of movies including Alfred Hitchcock's 'The Lady Vanishes' in 1938. Annie's father George was still working as a Sewerman , while Annie and her sister Amelia were working for a laundry. At 18 years of age it is likely that she had been working for at least three years already, possibly more.

Four years after the Census, on 18th September 1915, Annie married James William Scully at the Register Office in Islington. Both Annie and James were shown to be living at 53 Canonbury Road. It is unlikely that the couple were the only occupants of the address, and probably only lived in one or two rooms. These houses were substantial town houses, over several floors, far beyond the means of a couple in their early twenties.  James was employed as a Veneer Cutter, but Annie's occupation was blank, not uncommon at the time when female labour was largely ignored officially.

On her wedding day Annie was already six months pregnant, not unusual with limited availability of contraception, and not necessarily seen as particularly scandalous. Three months later, on 19th December 1915, the couple welcomed their daughter Annie Elizabeth Scully. 

The war raging across Europe and the world took James far from home, and Annie would have been alone looking after her daughter for long periods, awaiting James' return during any short leave periods. James would have been on leave during 1916 while his battalion were regrouping and training in Alexandria, Egypt after the conclusion of the Gallipoli Campaign. On 18th January 1917 Annie gave birth to her daughter Emily Amelia Scully while she was living in Shoreditch.

During the war, Annie and her sister Amelia were employed at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, the vast complex on the banks of the Thames building weapons and arms to supply the British and Commonwealth forces in the conflict. Annie was one of 80,000 employees, a large number of them women who had answered the government call to sign up for war work, and her work was hard and dangerous, facing the constant risk of explosions as well as the effects of exposure to poisonous chemicals during the making of TNT. Her skin may have yellowed as a result like so many others, earning them the nickname "Canary Girls".

Like millions of other families during the war, Annie was given the tragic news that her husband had been killed, dying in Gaza, Israel on 2nd November 1917. She may have been unable to continue living alone with her two children during the next four years, as by 1921 she was to be found living back with her parents, who were resident at 12 Poole Street in Hackney with her daughters.

She continued to live with her parents at the same address for many years and was recorded there in the Electoral Register for 1929. The next year she lost her father who died at the age of 70.

1939 proved to be a year of tragedy and change for Annie. During late spring her mother Martha died at the age of 72, then during late summer, at the age of 46, Annie married Charles Welsh, 3 years her senior. They were residing at 97 Englefield Road in Islington with three other households. Annie was recorded with an occupation of Unpaid Domestic Duties, while Charles was working as an Asphalter.

In 1961 Annie's husband Charles died, and eight years later at the age of 75 Annie herself died, being buried at St Pancras Cemetery in Islington on 12th September 1969.