Emily Davison was trampled by King George V's horse 98 years ago today...

[Dennis Donovan]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Davison



Emily Wilding Davison (11 October 1872 — 8 June 1913) was a militant women's suffrage activist who, on 4 June 1913, after a series of actions that were either self-destructive or violent, stepped in front of the horse of King George V at the Epsom Derby, sustaining injuries that resulted in her death four days later.

Davison was born in Blackheath, London, the daughter of Charles Davison (of Morpeth, Northumberland) and Margaret Davison (of Longhorsley, Northumberland), with two sisters and a brother, and many half-siblings (from her father's first marriage) including a half-brother, retired naval captain Henry Jocelyn Davison, who gave evidence at her inquest.

She was a good performer at school and had a university education, having studied first at Royal Holloway College in London. Subsequently she was forced to drop out because her recently widowed mother could not afford the fees of £20 a term. She then became a school teacher in Edgbaston and Worthing, raising enough money to study English Language and Literature at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and obtained first-class honours in her final exams, though women were not at that time admitted to degrees at Oxford. She then obtained a post teaching the children of a family in Berkshire and joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906, and immediately involved herself in their more militant activities.

She was arrested and imprisoned for various offences, including a violent attack on a man she mistook for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George. She went on hunger strike in Strangeways Prison and was force-fed. In Holloway prison, she threw herself down an iron staircase as a protest. She landed on wire netting 30 feet (10 m) below, which saved her; however, she suffered some severe spinal damage.

On 2 April 1911, the night of the 1911 census, Davison hid in a cupboard in the Palace of Westminster overnight so that on the census form she could legitimately give her place of residence that night as the "House of Commons". The 1911 census documents that were uncovered state that Emily Wilding Davison was found 'hiding in the crypt' in the Houses of Parliament. In 1999 a plaque to commemorate the event was set in place by Tony Benn MP.

In 1913, she planted a bomb at Lloyd George's newly built house in Surrey, damaging it severely.

Fatal injury at the Epsom Derby, 1913

Davison's purpose in attending the Derby of 4 June 1913 is unclear. Much has been made of the fact that she purchased a return rail ticket and also a ticket to a suffragette dance later that day, suggesting that martyrdom wasn't her intention.

A possibility of her reason for entering the race track was that she was trying to attach a flag to the King's horse, so that when the horse crossed the finishing line it would be flying the suffragette flag. Evidence for this was that she had supposedly been seen, in the weeks before, stopping horses in the park near her house. However, this is only one of many theories.

Pathe News captured the incident on film, showing Davison, carrying the banner of the WSPU, stepping out in front of the horse, Anmer, as it rounded Tattenham Corner. The horse fell, knocking Davison to the ground, unconscious. Eyewitnesses at the time were divided as to her motivation, with many believing that she had simply intended to cross the track, believing that all horses had passed; while others reported that she had attempted to pull down the King's horse.



She died four days later in Epsom Cottage Hospital, due to a fractured skull and internal injuries caused by the incident. Herbert Jones, the jockey who was riding the horse, suffered a mild concussion in the incident, but was "haunted by that woman's face" for much longer. In 1928, at the funeral of Emmeline Pankhurst, Jones laid a wreath "to do honour to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davison". In 1951, his son found Jones dead in a gas-filled kitchen.
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In rememberance of a brave person.

[Gman]

1. Brave or stupid?

[Dennis Donovan]

2. Stupid for walking in front of a speeding horse, brave for everything else she did...

...for Women's Suffrage.

[sharesunited]

3. I'm not so sure about the throwing herself down the stairs part or planting a bomb.

[Gman]

14. Sounds like that sums it up.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

4. Brave or insane?

[Book Lover]

10. Brave (nm)

[Recovered Repug]

15. There's a fine line between brave and stupid.

It generally depends on success or failure.

[MilesColtrane]

5. She certainly had an unbridled enthusiasm for the cause.

Too soon?

[slampoet]

6. Ineffective protest is never to be confused with bravery.

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. 'ineffective' probably isn't the word

given that she's still known 98 years later. However, there is doubt that she meant to kill herself, and without death, she would not have become that well known. It's hard to call something 'brave' when you don't know what the person had in mind.

[hlthe2b]

7. From her history, she sounded intermittently suicidal...

I have to wonder if manic depressive doesn't describe her better, despite her righteous causes. Sad. Also for the poor jockey...(and his horse)

I have to wonder, if my suspicions are correct, how much more effective she might have been, had she received the kind of diagnosis and treatment available to us now.

[FLPanhandle]

8. I wouldn't call her "Brave".

Stepping in front of large galloping horse is like stepping in front of car. Not too smart.

[Book Lover]

11. Thank you, Miss Davison

You did it so *my* rights would be recognized. Thank you.

[Rhiannon12866]

12. K&R. Incredible story...

Sounds like she was not only brave, but also pretty foolhardy. She could have accomplished much more had she lived.

[Bucky]

13. Seems like a troubled woman, even if she hadn't been oppressed.

Of course PETA probably wouldn't have approved.

[Cerridwen]

16. If only she'd faced down a tank; then she would be considered brave.

Tienanmen Square is bravery: facing down a horse is "insanity."

Interesting dichotomy.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. There's a lot of difference

The tank was on its way to threatening, and probably shooting, people; the horse was just racing. There's a definite humanitarian purpose to stopping the tank; for the horse, it was all about publicity (assuming she did mean to to something; the idea that she though all the horses had already passed doesn't make sense to me, so I think she did). The tank guy in Tienanmen Square was hoping he could reach the humanity of the people in the tanks - that they wouldn't actually try to run him over, or get out and shoot him, while Davison was just taking risks with something outside control (it was so fast, neither the jockey nor the horse really had a chance to react and not hit her; she wasn't really 'facing it down').