Emily Davison and the 1913 Epsom Derby Disaster: Martyr or Madwoman? | Horse Canada Emily Davison and the 1913 Epsom Derby Disaster: Martyr or Madwoman? | 0 comments This photo shows one camera angle. It was Epsom Derby Day in Epsom, Surrey, England on June 4th, 1913. People arrived in newfangled motorcars, in carriages and broughams pulled by horses, on bicycles and even in donkey carts. The well-to-do rubbed shoulders – well almost – with the commoners, and King George V’s racehorse, Anmer was entered in the race. It was the social event of the season! The news reel cameras were in place and although the movies were soundless back then, boards with comments and information were later filmed and dropped into the grainy black and white film to clarify the sequence of events. To top off this annual gala event, King George V and Queen Mary were in attendance. At the train station, a nervous woman alighted from her carriage. In her handbag were flags ready to be placed where the world would see them.

This was to be her finest moment; one that would make her previous newsworthy activities for women’s rights – famous and infamous – pale by comparison. Little did she know that her return train ticket would never be used, the planned dance party would have one less guest and the future holiday with her sister would never take place. This is the true story of Emily Wilding Davison and her part in the 1913 British Epsom Derby when she brought the King’s horse down, made history by her actions and brought attention – some positive and much negative – to the suffragette movement. Emily Davison was born in Blackheath, England in 1872 and later in life was an ardent activist for women’s rights. She was well educated and won a bursary to Royal Holloway College in 1891 but had to drop out when her father died and she could not afford the fees. She then became a governess and later a school teacher. Finally she had enough money saved to go to St. Hugh’s College at Oxford. This was at a time when women didn’t go in for higher education so she was setting the tone from an early age.

She joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (W.S.P.U) in 1906 and left a teaching post two years later to dedicate her time and talents to the cause which she did with a vengeance. She was militant and violent: disrupted meetings, went to jail nine times and objected to being force fed after a food strike by throwing herself, along with dozens of other Suffragettes down the stairs. However, like so many people who die tragically, Davison was more famous in death than in life. Digging into the background of the 1913 Epsom race course incident reveals that she and other suffragette sisters practiced tying scarves onto horses at a nearby park and they drew lots to see who would do the actual deed at the track. They obviously had no idea how fast a galloping racehorse travels; their park horse “guinea pigs” were no doubt moving at a sedate walk or trot and not at the 30-35 mph that a racehorse travels at. The Derby was a flat sprint and the Epsom course was shaped like a horse shoe. From the start the horses galloped along a fast straightaway that turned into a gradual bend.

The bend turned and sharpened at Tattenham corner where the horses were then into a straight home run to the finish line in front of the Royal box. This camera shows the accident from across the track. On Derby Day, Davison placed herself at Tattenham Corner with her suffragette banner of purple, white and green in hand. During the race, when the crowds were going wild, the cameras were rolling and the horses were going flat out, she ducked under the fence and walked onto the track, was passed by a few horses and then got hit bang on by the King’s horse Anmer. This was no glancing blow but a full on whack that sent her, the poor horse and jockey to the ground. Anmer got up and finished the race with no jockey and no doubt asked his befuddled equine brain, “What the heck just happened?!” The jockey Herbert Jones also suffered a mild concussion, a bruised face and cracked ribs but was back on the course the next day and was described to be, “quite cheery.” Sadly, the vision of the woman’s face haunted him for years and his son found him gassed to death in 1951.

He had killed himself, no doubt from misplaced guilt. In the black and white news reel showing the 1913 Epsom Race the actual incident takes place at around the 6.10 minute mark. Davison collapsed on the track, was unconscious and died four days later. Jones sent a wreath to her funeral with a ribbon saying, “to do honour to the memory of Mrs. Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davison.” Mrs. Pankhurst was also a fervent suffragette who founded the Women’s Social and Political Union in 1903 to demand votes for women. So, what was Davison really trying to do besides make a political statement? Was she trying to pull down the royal racehorse? Was she actually trying to tie a scarf or flag to him? Or, was she just walking across the track thinking that the race was finished? Today, thanks to modern technology there is new information available about the events that day. British documentary investigators Stephen Cole and Mike Dixon returned to the original nitrate film stock taken from the three news cameras in 1913 and switched the film to a digital format. The images were cleaned and the new software cross-referenced the three different camera angles.

Now, it would be easier to access what really happened. In 2011, horse-racing historian Michael Tanner said Davison’s position at track side would not have given her a clear enough view to have been able to see the King’s horse approach. The film researchers Cole and Dixon suggest that re-viewing the film shows that she would have had a clear view. Others feel that she thought that the race was over, and that she was crossing the track to get to the other side of the track, or to walk to the finish line; Epsom Derby tradition allowing spectators to walk to the finish line after the last horse had passed. There were two eyewitness statements that exist. One unknown man said that, “I was watching the horses approaching Tattenham Corner, when I noticed a figure bob under the rails on the opposite side to which I was standing. The horses were thundering down the course at a great pace bunched up against the rail. From the position in which the woman was standing it would have been impossible for her to have picked out any special horse. It was obviously her intention to stop the race. Misjudging the pace of the horses she missed the first four or five.

They dashed by just as she was emerging from the rails. With great calmness she walked in front of the next group of horses. ” The first missed her, but the second, Anmer, came right into her, and catching her with his shoulders, knocked her with terrific force to the ground while the crowd stood spellbound. The woman rolled over two or three times, and lay unconscious. She was thrown almost on her face. Anmer fell after striking the woman, pitching Jones, the jockey, clear over its head. Fortunately, Anmer fell clear of the woman, and the horses following swerved by the woman, the jockey and the fallen horse. Another witness named John Ervine said that, “Ms Davison, who was standing a few yards from me, suddenly ducked under the railings as the horses came up. This was very near Tattenham Corner, and there was a very large crowd of people on both sides of the course. “The King’s horse, Anmer, came up and Ms Davison went towards it. She put up her hand, but whether it was to catch hold of the reins or to protect herself I do not know. It was all over in a few seconds.

The horse knocked the woman over with very great force, and then stumbled and fell, pitching the jockey violently onto the ground. Both he and Ms Davison were bleeding profusely, but the crowd which swarmed about them almost was immediately too much for me to see any more. “I feel sure that Ms Davison meant to stop the horse, and that she did not go on to the course in the belief that the race was over, for, as I say, only a few of the horses had gone by when I first saw her leave the railings, and others had not passed when she was knocked down. I could not see whether any other horses touched her, for the whole thing happened so quickly, and I was so horrified at seeing her pitched violently down by the horse that I did not think of anything. The affair distressed the crowd very much.” Jones, the jockey and obvious major witness, later recalled that he clearly saw her reaching up to grab at the horse. The clarified film also shows her trying to reach up to the horse’s bridle. Thousands attended Davison’s funeral June 14th 1913. Well, all manner of theories abound….nobody will ever really know. So, what of Anmer?

Sadly his claim to fame was not for winning countless races for his Royal owner but for having hit Ms. Davison at Epsom and for coming a cropper himself. He went on to race a little more and placed a few times but never made the record books for having a stellar career. He seems to have faded from the history books and right into oblivion. The National Horseracing Museum in England has a racing plate worn by Anmer during the 1913 Epsom Derby. Where he ended up is anybody’s guess. Craiganour, the 6/4 favourite owned by Charles D. Ismay was first over the finish line on that historic day but was later disqualified. Ismay’s brother was J. Bruce Ismay, Managing Director of The White Star Line of Titanic fame, and the disqualification was very controversial; it is suspected that people were still reeling from the Titanic disaster. The race was awarded to the 100/1 outsider Aboyeur. Aboyeur (1910–circa 1917) ran seven times from 1912-1913 and won two races.

At the end of the season he was sold and exported to Russia where he disappeared during the Revolution. A sad end for a horse that had raced in front a King and Queen. Ironically, Davison’s actions to bring women’s suffrage to the forefront may have done more harm than good. Her actions, according to some historians, so horrified those politicians at the peak of power that they may have actually set the suffrage movement back. They argued that Emily was a highly educated person and if a highly educated woman was willing to do what she did, what could society expect of less educated women? An extension of the vote to women would plunge British society into bedlam – so they argued. Davison’s motto, “Deeds not Words” were ironic considering that women in some other countries had won the vote years earlier and not one rock was thrown, not one window was broken and not one woman was trampled at the racetrack. All women over the age of 21 got the right to vote in England in 1928 and in 2013 a plaque was unveiled at Epsom Racecourse to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1913 event.

Davison was buried in Morpeth, Northumberland and her funeral attracted thousands. The funeral procession was the last great suffragette march. Truth behind the death of suffragette Emily Davison is finally revealed | Society | The Guardian The Observer Truth behind the death of suffragette Emily Davison is finally revealed Hi-tech film analysis suggests Emily Davison's motives when she collided with the king's horse in 1913 were misunderstood Emily Davison, left, and jockey Herbert Jones fall to the ground after her collision with the King's horse, Anmer. Photograph: Hulton Archive Saturday 25 May 2013 19.00 EDT First published on Saturday 25 May 2013 19.00 EDT Close This article is 3 years old As an emblem of women's emancipation Emily Wilding Davison has always been controversial. The suffragette who was fatally injured at the Epsom racecourse during the Derby 100 years ago under the hooves of the king's horse has been saluted by some as a brave martyr and attacked by others as an irresponsible anarchist.

Now detailed analysis of film footage of the incident has shed new light on the contentious moments on 4 June 1913 that were to go down in the history of political protest. Despite the fact that film technology was in its early days, the incident was captured on three newsreel cameras and a new study of the images has shown that the 40-year-old campaigner was not, as assumed, attempting to pull down Anmer, the royal racehorse, but in fact reaching up to attach a scarf to its bridle. The analysis, carried out by a team of investigators for a television documentary to be screened tonight on Channel 4 , also indicates that the position of Davison before she stepped out on to the track would have given her a clear view of the oncoming race, contrary to the argument that she ran out recklessly to kill herself. Presenter Clare Balding and investigators Stephen Cole and Mike Dixon returned to the original nitrate film stocks taken on the day and transferred them to a digital format. This was done so that they could be cleaned and so that new software could cross-reference the three different camera angles.

"It has been such an extraordinary adventure to discover more about her, about what she stood for, about the suffragette movement," said Balding this weekend on her work with the team making Secrets of a Suffragette. "It is hugely significant as a moment in history, a moment that absolutely sums up the desperation of women in this country who wanted the vote." Historians have suggested that Davison was trying to attach a flag to King George V's horse and police reports suggested two flags were found on her body. Some witnesses believed she was trying to cross the track, thinking the horses had passed by, others believed she had tried to pull down Anmer. The fact that she was carrying a return train ticket from Epsom and had holiday plans with her sister in the near future have also caused some historians to claim that she had no intention of killing herself. In 2011 the horse-racing historian Michael Tanner argued that as Davison was standing in crowds on the inside of the bend at Tattenham Corner it would have been impossible for her to see the king's horse.

But new cross-referencing between the cameras has revealed, say the C4 programme makers, that Davison was closer to the start of Tattenham Corner than thought and so had a better line of sight. In this position she could have seen and singled out Anmer. Historians have suggested that Davison and other suffragettes were seen "practising" at grabbing horses in the park near her mother's house and that they then drew lots to determine who should go to the Derby. After colliding with Anmer, Davison collapsed unconscious on the track. The horse went over, but then rose, completing the race without a jockey. Davison died of her injuries four days later in Epsom Cottage Hospital. At the funeral of the leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1928, the jockey who had ridden Anmer that day, Herbert Jones, laid a wreath "to do honour to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davison". Jones had suffered a mild concussion in the 1913 collision, but afterwards claimed he was "haunted by that poor woman's face". In 1951, his son found Jones dead in a gas-filled kitchen.

The jockey had killed himself. On the centenary of the death of Emily Davison, we ask prominent figures from the worlds of arts, science and politics what still needs addressing in the fight for women’s rights Published: 3 Jun 2013 Public to choose from famous Mancunians to mark women's suffrage centenary, with Emmeline Pankhurst a favourite Published: 30 Jul 2014 A century after the death of Emily Davison at the Epsom Derby, the movement that gave votes to women still has much to teach those continuing to fight for equality Published: 29 May 2013 National Portrait Gallery unveils 1909 painting of militant suffragette whose followers slashed pictures in its collection Published: 24 Jul 2014 Horseracing History Online - Horse Profile : Anmer View image details Description: Anmer goes down in racing history not for winning anything special (he succeeded in just one small contest at Newmarket) but for being brought down by the suffragette Emily Davison in the 1913 Derby. She later died of her injuries.

The jockey Herbert Jones was concussed but recovered; Anmer survived to be placed a few times and was never heard of again, and the first past the post, Craiganour, was disqualified. The eventual winner, Aboyeur , was later lost in the Russian revolution. The National Horseracing Museum has a racing plate worn by Anmer during his tragic Derby run. It is now thought that Emily Davison did not intend to sacrifice her life, since she had a return train ticket in her pocket. Others consider that Craiganour's disqualification was politically motivated, since his owner was Charles Ismay , son of the owner of the Titanic. The 1913 Derby The Death of Emily Davison - Get History You are at: Home » Period » 20th Century » Pre-War »The Death of Emily Davison The Death of Emily Davison Pre-War Key facts about Emily Davison Emily Wilding Davison is famous for stepping in front of George V’s horse at the Epsom Derby She died in hospital four days later She was a suffragette and supporter of women’s rights People you need to know Emily Davison – suffragette and member of the Women’s Social and Political Union .

George V – King of Great Britain between 1910 and 1936. Herbert Jones – the racehorse Anmer’s jockey. David Lloyd George – Liberal politician who served as chancellor of the exchequer between 1908 and 1915, and as prime minister between 1916 and 1922. On 4 June 1913 suffragette 1 Emily Davison stepped in front of King George V’s horse, Anmer, at the Epsom Derby. She was trampled and died in hospital four days later. She is recognised as a hero and martyr for women’s rights, although most of her actions today would be considered terrorism. Women’s suffrage Before the First World War there were many arguments against female suffrage . Doctors advised that women’s brains and bodies were unsuitable for political thinking, which could lead to infertility or increased ‘manliness’. Women had no legal status separate from their husbands, so there was no room in law to give them the vote. Furthermore, as good daughters and wives, they would likely be swayed in their political choice by their fathers or husbands.

Other people thought it was just not ‘proper’ for women to vote. Many women, as well as men, saw the sound logic in these arguments, and in 1889 some 2,000 prominent women signed a petition against female enfranchisement . However, as more men were included in the electorate during the 19th century, the calls for female suffrage became louder and more violent. 2 By the start of the 20th century, the movement had gained considerable momentum, and by 1914, supporters were bombing schools, public buildings and churches (including Westminster Abbey), with suffragettes chaining themselves to railings outside Downing Street and Buckingham Palace. When arrested and imprisoned, they went on hunger strike . The hunger strikers were force-fed, attracting sympathy from the press and public, causing the government to introduce the quite probably illegal Cat and Mouse Act (where hunger strikers were released from prison and then re-arrested after their health had improved in order for them to continue their sentence). Emily Davison Emily Davison Emily was an intelligent woman from Kent.

In her younger years she was given a bursary to study English literature and foreign languages at Royal Holloway College, although she had to drop out after her father died. She went on to become a governess and in 1906 joined the militant Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU). When her activities as a suffragette made it impossible for her to take work as a governess, she remained unemployed, writing occasional articles as a journalist and living on gifts from her family. 3 By 1913 Emily had already served several prison terms for throwing rocks at ministers’ cars, setting fire to pillar boxes, going on hunger strike, and attacking a man she wrongly thought was David Lloyd George. She had also flung herself off a prison balcony and down a 30ft stairwell. On the night of the 1911 census , she sneaked into the Houses of Parliament and hid in a broom closet, so she could officially give her address in the census as the Houses of Parliament. There is now a plaque inside the cupboard.

The Epsom Derby Emily Davison was hit by the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby Although no-one really knows what she was thinking on 4 June, it is likely that she hoped her actions at the racecourse would enhance and advertise the suffragette movement. We don’t know whether she intended to commit suicide, as she had a return train ticket, and it has even been suggested she was just trying to cross the racecourse and mistimed it. However, she had made her will in 1911, which perhaps suggests death was on her mind. Furthermore, she said to a prison doctor in 1912 that ‘a tragedy is wanted’ to raise awareness of the cause. Did she think that she could be this tragedy? Whatever her reasons, she was labelled as a mentally ill fanatic, and the event shocked several previous supporters into withdrawing their support, many of whom saw her actions as an insult to the King.

4 Neither did the movement get the press coverage Davison had been hoping for, making ‘less impression than the fact that the favourite and first past the post of the best-attended Derby in years was disqualified in favour of a 100-1 outsider.’ 5 When the press did mention it, instead of focusing on her death, they concentrated on the welfare of the jockey and horse (which had to be put down). The jockey, Herbert Jones, committed suicide in 1951, having been ‘haunted by that woman’s face’. The funeral procession of Emily Davison Emily’s funeral took place on 14 June 1913 and was accompanied by a spectacular procession of other suffragettes, carrying a large cross at the front. This subdued some of the usual ‘rowdies’ who were often hired to heckle suffragette events, and many were reported removing their hats in respect. There is not a chance, in today’s world, that she could ever have made the impact she did at the time. The UK currently defines terrorism as any action or threat of action ‘designed to influence the government’ and ‘made for the purpose of advancing a political, religious or ideological cause’.

Not just Emily Davison, but the whole suffragette movement, would have been permanently jailed before it started. Things to think about Did Emily Davison intend to commit suicide? Did Emily’s actions make an impact, and was this impact the one she would have hoped for? Were the actions of Emily and other suffragettes acts of terrorism? Things to do Look through newspaper reports of the race and Emily’s death and funeral. How do you think the British press saw her actions, and the actions of the suffragettes in general? The Parliament website has many primary sources relating to Emily and the suffragettes online. Click here to look through them. Further reading Sadly, there are no good recent biographies of Emily Davison. However, there are several books on the suffragette movement as a whole. A very good, concise guide is Paula Bartley’s Votes for Women (3rd ed. 2007), which is part of the Access to History series. Essential reading for the student of the Women’s Social and Political Union is The Suffragette by Sylvia Pankhurst.

<br> <br> The term was first used as mockery, but the Suffragettes embraced it and turned the ‘g’ into a hard one, calling themselves ‘suffra-GETs’. For much of the modern period, most men have also been denied the right to vote. In 1432, Henry VI passed a law that only male owners of property worth at least £2 (which could be worth as much as £800,000 in today’s money) could vote. This went largely unchanged until the 1832 Reform Act, which allowed about 14% of the adult male population to vote. It was only in 1918 that all men over 21 were given the vote. She was never employed by the WSPU, although 110 people were by 1911. This loss of support can’t, however, be entirely blamed on Davison. The increasingly violent acts undertaken by the WSPU had been reducing public favour for a while.

David Horspool, The English Rebel: One Thousand Years of TRouble-making from the Normans to the Nineties, London: Penguin (2009) p.361 Emily Wilding Davison Emily Wilding Davison Primary Sources Emily Wilding Davison, the daughter of Charles Davison (1822–1893) and Margaret Caisley Davison (1848–1918), was born at at Roxburgh House , Vanbrugh Park Road, Greenwich on 11th October, 1872. After attending Kensington High School (1885–91) she won a place at Royal Holloway College to study literature but two years later she was forced to leave after her recently widowed mother was unable to find the £20 a term fees. Davison now found work as a governess before spending a term (April–June 1895) at St Hugh's Hall , and in the summer of 1895 achieved first-class honours in English in the Oxford University examination for women, though, as Oxford degrees were closed to women, this did not enable her to graduate.

Teacher In 1895 she began teaching at the Church of England College for Girls at Edgbaston . The following year she found employment at Seabury School , Worthing (1896–8). Eventually she raised enough money to return to university education. After graduating from University of London she obtained a post teaching the children of a family in Berkshire . WSPU Emily joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1906. She gradually became more and more involved in WSPU activities and in June 1908, was one of the chief stewards at a WSPU demonstration in London . The following year Emily gave up full-time teaching so that she could devote more of her time to the WSPU. Emily also became involved with the Workers' Educational Association. Emily Wilding Davison Emmeline Pankhurst met Davison during this period: "Emily Wilding Davison was a character almost inevitably developed by a struggle such as ours. She was a B.A. of London University, and had taken first-class honours at Oxford in English Language and Literature.

Yet the women's cause made such an appeal to her reason and her sympathies that she put every intellectual and social appeal aside and devoted herself untiringly and fearlessly to the work of the Union." In March 1909, Emily Davison was arrested while attempting to hand a petition to the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith . Emily was found guilty of causing a disturbance and sentenced to one-month imprisonment. Four months later she was in prison again for trying to get into a hall in London where David Lloyd George , the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was making a speech. Emily went on hunger strike and after five days she was released. In September 1909 she received a sentence of two months for stone throwing. Once again, she was released after going on hunger strike. Strangeways Prison A few days after leaving prison, Emily Davison, Mary Leigh and Constance Lytton were caught throwing stones at a car taking David Lloyd George to a meeting in Newcastle . The stones were wrapped in Emily's favourite words: "Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God." The women were found guilty and sentenced to one month's hard labour at Strangeways Prison .

The women went on hunger strike but this time the prison authorities decided to force-feed the women. In an attempt to avoid force-feeding, Emily used prison furniture to barricade the door of her prison cell. A prison officer climbed a ladder and after forcing the nozzle of a hosepipe through a window, filled up the cell with water. Emily was willing to die, but before the cell had been completely filled with water the door was broken down. Force-Feeding In a letter to a friend Davison explained what it was like to be force-fed: "In the evening the matron, two doctors, and five or six wardresses entered the cell. The doctor said 'I am going to feed you by force.' The scene, which followed, will haunt me with its horror all my life, and is almost indescribable. While they held me flat, the elder doctor tried all round my mouth with a steel gag to find an opening. On the right side of my mouth two teeth are missing; this gap he found, pushed in the horrid instrument, and prised open my mouth to its widest extent. Then a wardress poured liquid down my throat out of a tin enamelled cup.

What it was I cannot say, but there was some medicament, which was foul to the last degree. As I would not swallow the stuff and jerked it out with my tongue, the doctor pinched my nose and somehow gripped my tongue with the gag. The torture was barbaric." Davison also tried to commit suicide. She later recalled: "In my mind was the thought that some desperate protest must be made to put a stop to the hideous torture, which was now our lot. Therefore, as soon as I got out I climbed on to the railing and threw myself out to the wire-netting, a distance of between 20 and 30 feet. The idea in my mind was one big tragedy may save many others. I realised that my best means of carrying out my purpose was the iron staircase. When a good moment came, quite deliberately I walked upstairs and threw myself from the top, as I meant, on to the iron staircase. If I had been successful I should undoubtedly have been killed, as it was a clear drop of 30 to 40 feet. But I caught on the edge of the netting. I then threw myself forward on my head with all my might.

I know nothing more except a fearful thud on my head. When I recovered consciousness, it was to a sense of acute agony." James Keir Hardie , the leader of the Labour Party , complained about the treatment of Emily Davison in the House of Commons . The general public appeared to agree that Davison had been badly treated. Emily decided took legal action against the men at Strangeways who had been responsible for the hosepipe incident. On 19th January 1910, Judge Parry pronounced in Emily's favour, awarding damages of forty shillings. Emily Wilding Davison On Emily Davison's release she began working full-time for the Women's Social and Political Union and contributed articles and reviews to their newspaper, Votes for Women. In April 1911 when she spent the night in a cupboard near the crypt chapel in order that the census recorded it as her home. Sylvia Pankhurst later described Davison as "tall and slender, with unusually long arms, a small narrow head and red hair. Her illusive, whimsical green eyes and thin, half-smiling mouth, bore often the mocking expression of the Mona Lisa".

According to the authors of The Life and Death of Emily Wilding Davison (1988) she was a socialist and was an active member of the Workers' Educational Association and the Central Labour College . Arson Campaign The scale of her militant acts increased and in December 1911 she was arrested for setting fire to pillar-boxes. According to Sylvia Pankhurst this action was not approved by the WSPU . Vera Di Campli claims that "in keeping with her consistent rejection of authority, she now fell out of favour with the WSPU leadership over her independent and unauthorized programme of militant actions." Davison was sentenced to six months and during her spell in prison she went on two hunger strikes. Martyrdom Emily Davison was now convinced that women would not win the vote until the suffragette movement had a martyr. Emily took the decision to draw attention to the suffragette campaign by jumping down an iron staircase. Emily landed on wire-netting, 30 feet below. This prevented her death but she suffered severe spinal injuries. Once she had recovered her health, Emily Davison began making plans to commit an act that would give the movement maximum publicity.

In June, 1913, she attended the most important race of the year, the Derby , with Mary Richardson : "A minute before the race started she raised a paper on her own or some kind of card before her eyes. I was watching her hand. It did not shake. Even when I heard the pounding of the horses' hoofs moving closer I saw she was still smiling. And suddenly she slipped under the rail and ran out into the middle of the racecourse. It was all over so quickly." Davison ran out on the course and attempted to grab the bridle of Anmer , a horse owned by King George V . The horse hit Emily and the impact fractured her skull and she died on 8th June without regaining consciousness. Among the articles found in her possession were two WSPU flags, a racecard, and a return train ticket to Victoria Station . This has resulted in some historians arguing that she did not intend to kill herself.

Sylvia Pankhurst has argued: "Emily Davison and a fellow-militant in whose flat she lived, she had concerted a Derby protest without tragedy - a mere waving of the purple-white-and-green at Tattenham Corner, which, by its suddenness, it was hoped would stop the race. Whether from the first her purpose was more serious, or whether a final impulse altered her resolve, I know not. Her friend declares she would not thus have died without writing a farewell message to her mother." Other research has indicated that Davidson intended to attach a WSPU scarf to the king's horse. However, Emmeline Pankhurst believed that Davidson wanted to become a martyr. She wrote in her biography, My Own Story (1914): "Emily Davison clung to her conviction that one great tragedy, the deliberate throwing into the breach of a human life, would put an end to the intolerable torture of women.

And so she threw herself at the King's horse, in full view of the King and Queen and a great multitude of their Majesties' subjects." The Suffragette (15th June, 1913) The historian, Martin Pugh , believes it is impossible to know if she intended to commit suicide: "Davison's detachment from the formal organisation complicates the task of explaining her motives... As a result no contemporary really knew whether Davison intended suicide. The evidence is inconclusive... Admittedly on two occasions she had thrown herself over the railings in Holloway prison (which were designed to prevent suicides) and she is on record as telling the prison doctor in June 1912 that 'a tragedy is wanted'. But what did that mean? Contemporary medical evidence commonly regarded women, and suffragettes in particular, as prone to hysteria and thus as suicidal." Funeral Sylvia Pankhurst described the funeral in her book, The Suffrage Movement (1931): "A solemn funeral procession was organised to do her honour.

To the militants who had prepared so many processions, this was the natural manifestation The call to women to come garbed in black carrying purple irises, in purple with crimson peonies, in white bearing laurel wreaths, received a response from thousands who gathered from all parts of the country. Graduates and clergy marched in their robes, suffrage societies, trade unionists from the East End, unattached people. The streets were densely lined by silent, respectful crowds. The great public responded to the appeal of a life deliberately given for an impersonal end. The police had issued a notice which was virtually a prohibition of the procession, but at the same time constables were enjoined to reverent conduct." Suffragette, The Film. “Better To Be A Rebel Than A Slave” | SPYHollywood Suffragette, The Film. “Better To Be A Rebel Than A Slave” By Lou Ceffer on October 25, 2015 In the late 19th and early 20th century, the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal state in the quest for equal rights.

In 1903 Emmeline Pankhurst founded a new organization, the Women’s Social and Political Union. Pankhurst thought that the movement would have to become radical and militant if it was going to be effective. The Daily Mail later gave them the name “Suffragettes“. For actress Carey Mulligan, “Suffragette” was unlike any film she had ever made: The writer, director, producers and most of the cast were women. “It was a unique experience. I’m used to being the only girl in a room,” Mulligan said. “And it needed to be a female team to get it made in the first place, because it wasn’t going to happen if it wasn’t a group of women pushing it uphill, because no one wanted to tell the story.” The story is of women’s fight for the right to vote in Britain in 1912. Mulligan plays Maud, an ordinary, working-class woman who finds herself becoming an activist despite the risks of being part of the volatile movement. The film shows the women holding rallies and starting fires – and getting beaten, jailed and tortured; socially ostracized and unemployed, as a result.

There was little studio interest in telling the story, (men run the studios even today) – and that points to the problems women continue to face in Hollywood today, Mulligan said. “A woman threw herself in front of a king’s horse in 1913 and changed the course of history, and no one in 100 years felt this was a story worthy of the big screen,” she said. “If this monumental moment can go undocumented and untold, imagine how many millions of women’s stories there are for us to tell.” This moving glimpse into a one of the many dark times for women as this female-written-and-directed (by Abi Morgan and Sarah Gavron, respectively) period piece will forever remind us to be grateful for the women that fought so fearlessly to enable women’s right to vote to be recognized. Mulligan plays Maud Watts, a factory worker radicalized by the early pioneers of the women’s-suffrage movement. (This fall, she’s also expecting her first child with musician-husband Marcus Mumford.) The cast is stellar (Meryl Streep, Helena Bonham Carter), and Mulligan is already generating awards-season buzz.

The uncompromisingly political role is unlike any she’s ever tackled, but expect a classic Mulligan performance — as fresh as it is fiery. “Suffragette” director Sarah Gavron has made a film that embodies its message about equality. “Between one to 10 percent of films are made by women- often it’s more like one percent – and film is a way we put a mirror up to our lives,” Gavron said. “So by making this film and having a woman producer, writer, director, so many heads of department behind the camera, and then all those women in front of the camera, we were shifting the balance in an extraordinary way. But you don’t just want that to be a one-off.” Given the level of awareness about the gender disparity in Hollywood, Mulligan said the industry is compelled to respond. “I think it’s gotten to the point where people can’t ignore it now,” she said. “And there probably will be action as a result of it and not just a lot more noise.” Other than Maud in “Suffragette,” Mulligan hasn’t yet seen a move toward equality reflected in the parts she is offered.

So far, she said, “it’s still been a bucket load of boring girlfriend roles.” Focus Features debuted Suffragette in four theaters yesterday, and they should make around $76,000 for their troubles. That’s an okay $20k per-screen-average for the historical drama. If you are a woman, Suffragette is a film that reminds you these Suffragette women fought, and often died, to break down barriers and help forge the world which is here today filled with possibilities never imagined in 1912. If you’re a man, you should see Suffragette as a film that exposes the self proclaimed male dominated world. That world that is still spinning today that has reached half it’s potential, half developed and half fulfilled opportunities primarily because over half the world’s population are kept in a role intended to suppress and control. Women must not allow other people’s limited perceptions to define them. Strong men are not intimidated by strong women. They embrace them and together on equal footing can, if allowed, do incredible things. SPY says see this film. Also related to the The Suffragette movement is the truth behind the death of suffragette Emily Davison. Now it is finally revealed.

Emily Davison lies on the ground after her collision with the King’s horse. Hulton Archive As an emblem of women’s emancipation Emily Wilding Davison has always been controversial. The suffragette who was fatally injured at the Epsom racecourse during the Derby 100 years ago under the hooves of the king’s horse has been saluted by some as a brave martyr and attacked by others as an irresponsible anarchist. Now detailed analysis of film footage of the incident has shed new light on the contentious moments on 4 June 1913 that were to go down in the history of political protest. Despite the fact that film technology was in its early days, the incident was captured on three newsreel cameras and a new study of the images has shown that the 40-year-old campaigner was not, as assumed, attempting to pull down Anmer, the royal racehorse, but in fact reaching up to attach a scarf to its bridle. The analysis, carried out by a team of investigators for a television documentary indicates that the position of Davison before she stepped out on to the track would have given her a clear view of the oncoming race, contrary to the argument that she ran out recklessly to kill herself.

Presenter Clare Balding and investigators Stephen Cole and Mike Dixon returned to the original nitrate film stocks taken on the day and transferred them to a digital format. This was done so that they could be cleaned and so that new software could cross-reference the three different camera angles. “It has been such an extraordinary adventure to discover more about her, about what she stood for, about the suffragette movement,” said Balding this weekend on her work with the team making Secrets of a Suffragette. “It is hugely significant as a moment in history, a moment that absolutely sums up the desperation of women in this country who wanted the vote.” Historians have suggested that Davison was trying to attach a flag to King George V’s horse and police reports suggested two flags were found on her body. Some witnesses believed she was trying to cross the track, thinking the horses had passed by, others believed she had tried to pull down Anmer. The fact that she was carrying a return train ticket from Epsom and had holiday plans with her sister in the near future have also caused some historians to claim that she had no intention of killing herself.

In 2011 the horse-racing historian Michael Tanner argued that as Davison was standing in crowds on the inside of the bend at Tattenham Corner it would have been impossible for her to see the king’s horse. But new cross-referencing between the cameras has revealed, that Davison was closer to the start of Tattenham Corner than thought and so had a better line of sight. In this position she could have seen and singled out Anmer. Historians have suggested that Davison and other suffragettes were seen “practising” at grabbing horses in the park near her mother’s house and that they then drew lots to determine who should go to the Derby. After colliding with Anmer, Davison collapsed unconscious on the track. The horse went over, but then rose, completing the race without a jockey. Davison died of her injuries four days later in Epsom Cottage Hospital. At the funeral of the leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1928, the jockey who had ridden Anmer that day, Herbert Jones, laid a wreath “to do honor to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davison”.

Jones had suffered a mild concussion in the 1913 collision, but afterwards claimed he was “haunted by that poor woman’s face”. In 1951, his son found Jones dead in a gas-filled kitchen. The jockey had killed himself. Lou Ceffer The 100-year mystery of why suffragette Emily Davison threw herself under the king's horse | Daily Mail Online comments Racehorses are galloping at full speed around Tattenham Corner in the Epsom Derby. This is the last bend before the final straight and the winning post, where thousands of racegoers are cheering in the stands, and King George V and Queen Mary are watching from the Royal Box. There is a roar from the crowds as the horses round the long left turn. Then a woman ducks under the railings and runs on to the racecourse. In an instant, she is knocked flying by Anmer, a thoroughbred owned by the King. Anmer tumbles on its side, unseating its jockey. The horse stands but the rider lies still. Nearby, the woman lies on the turf, more like a heap of rags than a person.

The crowd, who a moment before had been cheering, surges towards the turf and surrounds the prone figures. The time is 3.10pm, 4 June 1913. It will be remembered as the moment when a suffragette ‘threw herself under the King’s horse’. Historic: The scene at Epsom's Tattenham Corner moments after Emily Davison was struck by Anmer The iconic image of the suffragette being trampled by George V’s horse has come to symbolise the bitter struggle that women fought to win the right to vote in Britain. But though the incident was caught by British Pathé’s hand-cranked cinema cameras filming the Derby, the arguments about what actually happened that day have continued ever since. The woman at the Derby is Emily Wilding Davison, a leading militant in the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU), founded in 1903. Four days later, Emily dies in hospital of her injuries without regaining consciousness. She is 40. But the archive footage of Emily’s protest does not answer the nagging question: did she mean to commit suicide at the Derby?

Her protest was just the latest in a series of militant outrages that appalled polite Edwardian society. At the inquest into Emily’s death, the coroner seemed to speak for the nation when he said: ‘It is exceedingly sad that an educated lady should sacrifice her life in such a way.’ Parliament and the press were united in their conviction that Emily had crossed a line: this was no longer justified protest but ‘wicked madness’. The Morning Post reported the incident under the headline ‘Sensational Derby – suffragist’s mad act’. The ‘sensation’ was not the injuries to Emily; it was the fact that a 100-1 outsider, Aboyeur, had won the race. The paper was also concerned about the King’s jockey, Herbert Jones, 28, who had been thrown by Anmer.

‘The King,’ says The Post, ‘made immediate inquiries regarding his jockey who had no bones broken.’ Crowds watch Emily¿s coffin pass through Central London on its way to King¿s Cross station, 14 June 1913 Suffragettes at a demonstration in London Emily made the front pages ¿ but only as an afterthought to the race details A list of Emily¿s possessions from the Metropolitan Police, 10 June 1913 Two days later, while recuperating at home, Jones received a telegram from Buckingham Palace. It had been sent by a palace flunkey on behalf of Queen Alexandra, the Queen Mother. ‘Queen Alexandra was very sorry indeed to hear of your sad accident caused through the abominable conduct of a brutal lunatic woman. I telegraph now by Her Majesty’s command to enquire how you are getting on and to express Her Majesty’s sincere hope that you may soon be all right.’ Emily remained in a coma after being rushed from the track to Epsom Cottage Hospital. Efforts were made to relieve the pressure on her brain, but she died on 8 June without regaining consciousness.

The death certificate barely conceals the doctor’s outrage – ‘fracture of the base of the skull caused by being accidentally knocked down by a horse through wilfully rushing on to the racecourse at Epsom Downs during the progress of a race’. The story of Emily’s death, and a little of her life, unfolded at the inquest, which was held in a cramped police court at Epsom on 10 June. Police Sergeant Frank Bunn gave an eyewitness account. He had been on duty ‘some 15 or 20 yards nearer the winning post. Several horses passed by when a woman, supposed Emily Davison, ran out from under the fence and held her hands up in front of HM King’s horse, whereby she was knocked down and rendered unconscious. The horse which pitched over on to its head stopped on the course. It received slight cuts to the face and body and injury to its off fore hoof.’ In his notes, Bunn listed the items that had been found on Emily. He discovered two suffragette flags, identifiable by their green, white and purple stripes, folded up and pinned to the back of her jacket, on the inside.

They were one and a half yards long and three quarters of a yard wide – large enough for the racegoers to see if she had managed to unfurl them. On ‘her person’ he found a small square of orange cardboard, stamped with the number 0315. It is the return half of Emily’s third-class train ticket from Victoria to Epsom. Why would she have bought a return ticket if she had intended to take her life? The day before the Derby, Emily had met her friend Mary Leigh. She seemed in high spirits and told Mary, ‘I’m going to the Derby tomorrow.’ ‘What are you going to do?’ asked Mary. ‘Ah,’ she said, putting her head a little on one side, her eyes smiling. ‘Look in the evening paper,’ she added, ‘and you will see something.’ From left: suffragettes Emily Davison, Sylvia Pankhurst, Christabel Pankhurst and Emmeline Pethick-Laurence, 1910 The jury decided (in the family’s favour) that Emily was an accidental martyr – suicide was a criminal offence for those who failed in their attempts, and a source of shame for families at the time.

Having heard all the evidence – about her character, her state of mind and her railway ticket – the jury found there was not enough to return a verdict of suicide. Her death was simply a ‘misadventure’. At the inquest, Police Constable Eady, who was standing on the opposite side of the track to Sergeant Bunn, was asked by the coroner whether it would have been possible for Emily to pick out any particular horse. ‘I do not think it would be possible, the way they were bunched together,’ he said. This corroborated Bunn’s evidence: ‘The horses came along in a heap, not strung out at all… It was a close race, and between the first horse and the last there was a distance of only a few yards.’ But on this point, they were both quite wrong; as Emily waited for the Derby to start at 3pm, she had marked her card for the preceding races and studied the form. She knew the horses and, crucially, she knew the colours of the riders’ silks.

She could not miss the jockey wearing the King’s colours, even if she only had a split second to spy them: Herbert Jones’s silks were of rich red sleeves and a blue body. The police and government clearly preferred the fiction that Emily was a mad woman, intent on a reckless act of martyrdom, and chose the King’s horse by accident. They did not want the public to hear that the true target of her shocking protest for women’s suffrage had been the monarchy. Any attack on the King (or his horse) was not only unthinkable, it was seditious. Had the coroner called for the Pathé film to be shown at the inquest, he would have tended to agree with accounts that she could not have identified the King’s horse in the split second before she was hit. However, if the jury had had the benefit of modern technology, they may have had a different view. The Suffragette magazine gives Emily angelic status, 13 June 1913 In an enhanced version of the 1913 Derby film, far from being ‘in a heap’, the horses are strung out as they round Tattenham Corner into the final straight.

Emily can be seen running through a gap in the horses. Then she stands quite calmly, well away from the rails. She lets one, two, three horses fly past her. She is taking her time to pick her horse. Anmer is near the back of the field. As the horse thunders towards her, she steps firmly towards it and puts up her hands. Half a ton of thoroughbred racehorse at full gallop smashes into her body. She is sent tumbling, her neck and head hitting the ground with each turn. The inquest never found a reason for her action, except as a mindless protest. But if she was not trying to kill herself under Anmer’s hooves, what was she trying to do? In addition to the two concealed flags, Emily also carried a scarf in the suffragettes’ colours, which was wrapped around her waist. Perhaps she intended to tie this scarf around Anmer’s bridle, so that the King’s horse would be carrying the suffragette colours across the finishing line. This would have been a very public petition to the King as he sat in the royal enclosure by the winning post, had she succeeded.

On 14 June 1913, Emily made the return journey from Epsom to Victoria Station, for which she had bought her return ticket, in an oak casket. Four black horses pulled the funeral carriage; six suffragettes, including Sylvia Pankhurst, marched alongside. The procession included 50 hunger strikers, some on release because of ill health, and hundreds of women ex-prisoners. At St George’s Church, Bloomsbury, an estimated 6,000 women took part in the service. More than 50,000 people turned out on the streets to watch the funeral pass by. The coffin was taken to King’s Cross station and then put into a goods van for its final journey to Morpeth in Northumberland. Huge crowds turned out the next day in Morpeth as Emily was buried in the family grave. The site is marked by a large stone monument with a cross on top and the suffragette slogan ‘Deeds not Words’. Parliament finally gave equal voting rights to women and men in 1928. Today, the right for which Emily Wilding Davison gave her life is taken for granted.

In the village of Longhorsley, where Emily’s mother’s house still stands, Jane Cotton, who runs Pele Cottage bed and breakfast, reports that no one asks about Emily these days: ‘They don’t seem to realise she lived here.’ Emily is not completely forgotten.Thousands of visitors already troop past a glass case as they make their way to the public gallery of the House of Commons, perhaps little understanding its significance. It contains a faded, fragile silk scarf, with green, white and purple stripes, stained with mud. It is the scarf that Emily was wearing when she fell under the King’s horse. Real Britannia: Our Ten Proudest Years, the Glory and the Spin by Colin Brown is published by Oneworld, priced £18.99 To order a copy for £14.99 with free p&p, contact the you bookshop on 0843 382 1111, you-bookshop.co.uk Suffragette Emily Davison did not intend suicide | Dear Kitty. Some blog Dear Kitty.

Some blog On animals, peace and war, science, social justice, women's issues, arts, and much more Search Suffragette Emily Davison did not intend suicide Posted on From weekly The Observer in Britain: Truth behind the death of suffragette Emily Davison is finally revealed Hi-tech film analysis suggests Emily Davison’s motives when she collided with the king’s horse in 1913 were misunderstood Vanessa Thorpe Sunday 26 May 2013 As an emblem of women’s emancipation Emily Wilding Davison has always been controversial. The suffragette who was fatally injured at the Epsom racecourse during the Derby 100 years ago under the hooves of the king’s horse has been saluted by some as a brave martyr and attacked by others as an irresponsible anarchist. Now detailed analysis of film footage of the incident has shed new light on the contentious moments on 4 June 1913 that were to go down in the history of political protest.

Despite the fact that film technology was in its early days, the incident was captured on three newsreel cameras and a new study of the images has shown that the 40-year-old campaigner was not, as assumed, attempting to pull down Anmer, the royal racehorse, but in fact reaching up to attach a scarf to its bridle. The analysis, carried out by a team of investigators for a television documentary to be screened tonight on Channel 4, also indicates that the position of Davison before she stepped out on to the track would have given her a clear view of the oncoming race, contrary to the argument that she ran out recklessly to kill herself. Presenter Clare Balding and investigators Stephen Cole and Mike Dixon returned to the original nitrate film stocks taken on the day and transferred them to a digital format. This was done so that they could be cleaned and so that new software could cross-reference the three different camera angles. “It has been such an extraordinary adventure to discover more about her, about what she stood for, about the suffragette movement ,” said Balding this weekend on her work with the team making Secrets of a Suffragette .

“It is hugely significant as a moment in history, a moment that absolutely sums up the desperation of women in this country who wanted the vote .” Historians have suggested that Davison was trying to attach a flag to King George V ‘s horse and police reports suggested two flags were found on her body. Some witnesses believed she was trying to cross the track, thinking the horses had passed by, others believed she had tried to pull down Anmer. The fact that she was carrying a return train ticket from Epsom and had holiday plans with her sister in the near future have also caused some historians to claim that she had no intention of killing herself. In 2011 the horse-racing historian Michael Tanner argued that as Davison was standing in crowds on the inside of the bend at Tattenham Corner it would have been impossible for her to see the king’s horse. But new cross-referencing between the cameras has revealed, say the C4 programme makers, that Davison was closer to the start of Tattenham Corner than thought and so had a better line of sight. In this position she could have seen and singled out Anmer.

Historians have suggested that Davison and other suffragettes were seen “practising” at grabbing horses in the park near her mother’s house and that they then drew lots to determine who should go to the Derby. After colliding with Anmer, Davison collapsed unconscious on the track. The horse went over, but then rose, completing the race without a jockey. Davison died of her injuries four days later in Epsom Cottage Hospital. At the funeral of the leading suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1928, the jockey who had ridden Anmer that day, Herbert Jones , laid a wreath “to do honour to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davison”. Jones had suffered a mild concussion in the 1913 collision, but afterwards claimed he was “haunted by that poor woman’s face”. In 1951, his son found Jones dead in a gas-filled kitchen. The jockey had killed himself. Related articles

Question: What was the name of the horse ridden by Herbert Jones that trampled and killed suffragette Emily Davison during the 1913 Derby?
Answer: ANMER