Born in St Just, Cornwall on 20 January, 1853 (GRO), by 1881 she was living in Bank Square with her mother Margaret and sister Lucy. A work with a Newlyn title has been found by Bednar as early as 1881.  

She is known to have exhibited between 1883-1889 at the Royal Society of British Artists and also the Society of Women Artists. One of her paintings, from a private collection, Helford River (a watercolour) was exhibited at the Falmouth Group Show of Women Artists in Cornwall (1996), but she had limited success during her lifetime. The artist died on 1 June, 1939, aged 86, in Penzance (GRO).

A recent correspondent (2015) has written to recount the loss of Annie's artistic output, following her death. Her nephew, Herbert John Thomas, arrived in West Cornwall, prepared to supervise the closure of her estate, only to find that other relations, in the name of her 'privacy', had thrown her remaining paintings and travel diaries, down a nearby mineshaft!