Emily Davison (1872-1913)

Emily Davison, was born in Greenwich on 11 October 1872, the daughter of Charles Davison, a retired merchant, and his second wife Margaret Caisley. When her father died in 1893 he left the family with little money and his wife ran a shop in Northumberland to make ends meet. Although attending Royal Holloway College, where she was studying literature, Emily had to leave when her mother could not afford the £20 a term fees. Emily then worked as a governess till she had raised enough money to return to university. In 1895, after graduating with a first class honours degree in English Language and Literature from London University, she became a teacher in schools in Edgbaston, then in Worthing and subsequently she taught privately.

In 1906 Emily joined Emmeline Pankhurst's Women's Social and Political Union (WPSU) whose early aims were to recruit working class women into the cause for female emancipation. Emily quickly became deeply involved and by June 1908, was one of the chief stewards at a WSPU demonstration in London and in 1909 she gave up full-time teaching to give more time to the WSPU.

Emily wrote numerous articles and reviews for the WSPU newspaper and other publications. Emily was a militant Christian feminist and was also closely involved with the Workers' Educational Association and the Central Labour College. She did not react well to authority and was a bit of a loose cannon, so was not always in favour with the WSPU leadership who disliked her many independent and unauthorized militant acts.

In March 1909, Emily was arrested while attempting to hand a petition to the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith. Found guilty of causing a disturbance, she was sentenced to one-month's imprisonment. Four months later she was sent to prison again - this time for attempting to gain entry to a meeting were a speech was being made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George. Emily decided to continue her protest while in prison and went on hunger strike but was released after five days. In September 1909 she received a sentence of two months for stone throwing but was again released after going on hunger strike.

Only a few days later Davison, Mary Leigh and Constance Lytton were arrested for throwing stones at a car containing David Lloyd George. The women were found guilty and sentenced to one month's hard labour. The women went on hunger strike but this time the authorities decided to attempt to force-feed them. In protest at this turn of events, Emily barricaded herself in her cell and her warders reacted by putting a hosepipe through a window and attempted to fill the cell with water! Although Emily was prepared to die, the door was broken down before she drowned. Complaints were made in Parliament about this treatment which also caused a bit of a public outcry. Emily decided to take legal action against the warders and won £2 in damages.

Becoming ever more militant, she was arrested for setting fire to pillar-boxes in December 1911 and was sentenced to six months imprisonment. Despite two more hunger strikes Emily felt that that the cause needed a martyr and on 22 June 1912 she jumped down an iron staircase at Holloway Prison. She landed on wire-netting some 30 feet below, this saved her life but she sustained severe spinal injuries.

To gain publicity for the Suffragette cause Emily hid in the House of Commons on three occasions and was imprisoned a total of eight times. Her back injuries and all the prison terms did nothing to reduce her militant protests which culminated at the Epsom Derby on 4th June 1913.

As the horses rounded Tattenham Corner, Emily slipped under the railings and ran out on to the course in an attempt to grab the bridle of a horse as it rounded Tattenham Corner. The horse's chest hit Emily and the impact fractured the base of her skull. With blood coming from her mouth and nose she was put in a car and taken to an on-course ambulance station and then transferred by ambulance to Epsom Cottage Hospital. She died four days later without regaining consciousness.

The jockey, Herbert Jones, was luckier as according to the Daily Mirror the King's horse turned a complete somersault and Jones was dragged for a short way along the course. Physically he suffered from concussion and minor injuries and refused hospital treatment. However Tim Goldsmith, winner of our 2007 Crossword Competition, says that Jones was one of his ancestors and while the incident brought Jones some notoriety the story ends with a second death. Jones, an experienced and successful jockey, had won the Derby, 2,000 Guineas and the St Leger in 1900 on Diamond Jubilee, for the Prince of Wales, hence Herbert's nickname in the racing world of 'Diamond Jones', and the 1909 Derby on Minoru (and the 2,000 Guineas of 1909) for Edward VII. He was forced to retire in 1923, aged 42 yrs after collapsing with a pulmonary haemorrhage. However Epsom born Jones, was "haunted by that woman's face" and on 17 July 1951 his 17-year-old son found his father dead in a gas-filled kitchen. The coroner recorded a verdict of "suicide while the balance of his mind was disturbed".

There are some doubts if Emily meant to grab any horse's bridle or was targeting that of King George V's horse, Anmer, the horse that hit her. There are also doubts as to whether she meant to commit suicide as she had with her a return train ticket to Victoria and a pass for a Suffragette rally later in the day. The coroner recorded a verdict of death "due to misadventure".

Emily Davison was the only Suffragette who deliberately risked death for her cause but from reading The Times one would think that the general public was more concerned with the health of the horse and jockey. Emily was widely condemned as a mentally ill fanatic but this did not stop her having a large and spectacular procession from Epsom to a memorial service in St George's Church Bloomsbury on 14th June. She was buried the next day at the Parish Church of St Mary's, Morpeth. Surprisingly archive newsreel footage exists of both the race and the funeral procession, clips of which can be viewed at Screen Archive South East.

We are very grateful to Bryn Elliott who has sent us his transcript of Police Sergeant Frank Bunn's official report on the incident. The original police pocket book is in the Metropolitan Police Museum Collection but this transcript is in the Waltham Abbey Police Collection which is held in the Epping Forest District Museum.

In 2002 a commemorative plaque was unveiled to Emily Davison's memory at the hospital in Alexandra Road, Epsom.