Emily Davison may be a familiar name to you as the who documenting the Suffrage campaign threw herself under a horse and who is often dismissed as typical of have found little information about her the lunatic fringe' of the Women's Social and Political Union. and so have either excluded her entirely from their accounts or have cast her When Rebecca Ferguson was a student at the Royal Holloway into strange, very inappropriate roles. College, which Emily herself attended, she was prompted to look She has been described as a statuesque, into the rest of her story. Emily's commitment to civil disobedience red-headed beauty, going to her death with an Amazon-like dignity; as a and direct action symbolizes the militancy in the suffrage campaign mystic and a visionary who thought she that hides behind its more respectable history. was Joan of Arc; or as an hysterical, even insane woman who did not know what she was doing. The accounts of he day after the Derby in to give all the worid the knowledge that those who knew her prove each of those 1913, Emily reached the a Suffragette, in the full tide of life and pictures wrong. headlines of all the papers. energy, had died for her faith, Emily Emily was born and spent her child­ Some even had a photograph Davison left for her comrades in the hood in , where her of her being thrown to the ground. The fight an ineffaceable impression of a life family remained while she moved away Suffragette magazine devoted a whole consecrated to one great end.' to attend school in Kensington. At edition, its pages lined with black, to Ineffaceable. That was how Emily's school she showed promise and was Emily's life, and to her sacrifice. Women act was described in 1913. It is strange, awarded a scholarship to attend Royal from all over the country travelled to then, that Emily is one of the more Holloway College, a new women's London to take part in her funeral pro­ anonymous heroines of the fight for college and one of the first in the cession. Their feelings are expressed by women's suffrage. She was a little too country. As one of the few women in this passage from The Suffragette: militant for the Women's Social and Britain who had been able to continue 'In the last gallant rush upon the Political Union (WSPU) and so she their education and study for a degree, King's horse at the Derby, which was tended to act by herself. Historians Emily must have been very conscious 6 Spare Rib of her privileged position. Although this with her mother, recovering from her the prison matron, and five or six was a decade before the Women's Suf­ ordeal in prison. Within a month she wardresses entered her cell, held her frage society was set up at the college, was active once again, and was sentenc­ down, and, ignoring her protestations, there were plenty of opportunities for ed to two months in jail for breaking force fed her. 'The scene which follow­ Emily to discuss and leam about windows, but was released after a two ed' , wrote Emily on her release, 'will women's place in society. Despite her day . haunt me with its horror all my life father's death she scraped together In October Lloyd George was to . . . While they held me flat, the elder enough money to continue her studies speak in Newcastle, and the women's doctor tried all round my mouth with and passed an English degree with first a steel gag to find an opening. On the class honours. right side of my mouth two teeth are She managed to find a job as a missing; this gap he found, pushed in schoolteacher but found it very limit- the horrid instrument, and prised open mg: she needed more to think about, my mouth to its widest extent... As more action. She began to attend I would not swallow the stuff and jerk­ meetings of the WSPU, at first out of ed it out with my tongue, the doctor curiosity, to see if the newspapers were pinched my nose and somehow gripped fight to condemn them. With increasing my tongue with the gag. The torture mterest she finally joined the Union in was barbaric.' 1906 and by 1908 was acting as con- Two days later Emily was transferred yenor for a major WSPU demonstration to a neighbouring cell. Never one to give ln London, although she had to leave in to circumstances if she could try to early to return to her pupils. Dissatis­ alter them, and sickened by her exper­ fied with such restrictions she changed iences, she realised that she could use ^er position and went to work as gover- the furniture in her room to barricade ness for a family in Berkshire. Within a herself in. Climbing to the top of her year she gave up that job as well, and barricade, she settled down to wait. All •"eturned to London to devote her time afternoon people hammered on the and energy to the women's movement. door, trying to make her give in, deter­ In March 1909, Emily took part in mined to gain admittance. Finally they a delegation of women to present their smashed her window, inserted the views to the Prime Minister, Mr Asquith. nozzle of a hose, and turned the jet of She was arrested for the first time, and icy water directly onto her, until the sentenced to a month in prison. By the water level in the room had reached six end of July she was free, protesting at a inches. They would have continued for Political meeting at which Lloyd George longer had a group of prison visitors was speaking, and was again arrested not arrived at that moment and been ^nd imprisoned. Between March and horrified by what was happening. Ju,y imprisoned had devel- Emily still refused to move and so. des­ 0Ped a new means of protest. Classed pite the danger to her, they broke the as Grade Two prisoners they lacked door down. She was carried off to a hot certain privileges enjoyed by Grade One bath, but the caring soon stopped and Pnsoners, such as the right to wear their the doctor returned to force feed her 0wn clothes. They had demanded to be again. This time the tube was passed up reclassified and when their demands one nostril and then pushed down her were ignored they began to protest and Emily's funeral throat. After that ordeal her strength ake part in hunger strikes. Describing movement organised various protests was almost gone and she was released er protest in a determined way, Emily for the occasion. This time Emily was from prison by the authorities who did wrote: given a partner to work with, Lady not want to have to explain her death. When I was shut in the cell I at once Constance Lytton. Holding stones the Her protest had had some effect, ^mashed seventeen panes of glass. two women waited for Lloyd George's mostly because it had been seen by the ease, if you are asked why we did this, car to arrive. As the car drove past prison visitors. Questions were asked in |*y, because we object to the fact that Newcastle Breweries they ran forward, the House of Commons about the treat­ e windows can never be opened and aiming to damage the car as much as ment of imprisoned suffragettes. Emily e ventilation is bad. possible, but not to harm its occupants. sued and was awarded 40 shillings in . Then they rushed me to another cell, Lady Constance threw her stone suc­ damages and costs, but the treatment of m which everything was fixed. I broke cessfully; Emily, seized and arrested women in prison — which had won the ^even panes of that window, to the mat- before she could act was tried for approval of the Secretary of State — was cm s astonishment, as I had a hammer attempted assault, but released. Only a continued. It was clear Parliament was • • • Then they forcibly undressed me fortnight later, she was on her way to doing nothing to meet the suffragettes' nd left me sitting in a prison chemise. I Strangeways for breaking windows at demands. Emily determined to get into ^ng the second verse of "God Save the the Post Office and at the Liberal Club. the House of Commons to ask Mr .^ng With "Confound their politics" in Since the suffragettes had begun hunger striking four months earlier As we K<> to press, we're thinking especially of the women from j. Emily was locked in a dark cell, and policy within prisons had been changed. ^asted for over five days, losing one and Greenham Common Peace Camp, The prison authorities had resorted to' imprisoned for their 'extremism' in alf stone before she was released. On force-feeding whenever they so chose, opposing the siting of cruise missiles in e walls of Holloway prison she carved despite the fact that this was illegal this country. And of all women in °me words which were to become her without the 'patient's' consent. Emily prison in many countries, struggling otto: 'Rebellion against tyrants is had been on hunger strike since the day for a better world. 0'5«dience to God,* she appeared in court. The day after The Sparc Rib Collective ^he spent August quietly at home she arrived in the prison two doctors,

Spare Rib 7 <4 Asquith why he would not make the first, with all her might onto the iron big race. Among the crowd were report­ House representative by giving the vote staircase ten feet below. ers and photographers from all the big to women. On a Saturday afternoon she Emily survived this third suicide national newspapers, various Members hid herself in a cubby hole in the heating bid, suffering injuries to her back, head of Parliament and the King and Queen. system of the Houses of Parliament, and shoulder which were to trouble Among them too was Emily Davison, a prepared to sit it out until Monday. her for the rest of her life. She lay on return ticket to Waterloo in her pocket, Thirst gave the game away. On the Sun­ her prison bed in agony, too ill to be a flag in the suffragette colours sewn day she was caught by a watchman after moved to the hospital. She was force inside her coat. A woman standing near creeping downstairs for a drink. If she fed nine times during the next week. her later reported that: 'A minute had been tried she would have had to During an interview with the prison before the race started she raised a pap­ appear before the House of Commons doctors she convinced them that she er or some kind of card before her eyes. which was, of course, exactly what she was sane and that her suicide bids I was watching her hand. It did not wanted. It was decided to drop the case. were considered acts. She tried to con­ shake. Even when I heard the pounding The fight for the vote continued. In vince them of their inhumanity towards of the horses' hooves moving closer I 1911 large numbers of women made the the suffragettes, and she certainly per­ saw she was still smiling'. census an occasion to get their message suaded them of her courage. It is these After the leading horses hurtled past heard by refusing to complete their suicide bids and these interviews which at forty miles an hour Emily quickly forms. 'As I am a woman, and women prove that her death the next year was ducked under the railings and seized the do not count in the State, I refuse to be not something performed in the heat of bridle of the King's colt, Anmer. Horse, counted', Emily wrote on her census the moment, but a considered sacrifice. rider and Emily fell to the ground in a paper and alongside this she continued Emily began 1913 in a way which confused heap in front of the Royal her individual acts of protest and def­ had become customary. She lived a Box. She was carried to the Cot­ iance. She made a further attempt to precarious existence with no job and no tage Hospital where the Queen enquired get into the House of Commons which certain income. Her heroic acts and her about her condition while the King also failed due to discovery. Once again enquired after the jockey. The jockey it was against the authorities interests to recovered but Emily did not come out charge her. of her coma. Fellow suffragettes watch­ After setting fire to a pillar box in ed by her bedside which they draped in 1912, however, she was sent to prison green, white and purple. She came for six months, and there her health round, briefly; said, 'Fight on, and God broke down. She was force fed, not will give the victory,' and lapsed back because she was on hunger strike, but into unconsciousness. Her condition because she was too weak to eat enough deteriorated, an emergency operation to keep herself alive. When she recovered was performed, but it failed to save she joined the other suffragettes in Hol- her and she died on June 8. loway on hunger strike. They were Tributes arrived from all over Brit­ placed in solitary confinement, and ain and the WSPU arranged her funeral when that did not break their resolve procession with as much care as pos­ the force feeding began again. They sible. Mourners were divided into three barricaded themselves in their cells main categories; those wearing black and Emily later described the horrible who were to carry purple irises, those noises as the warders worked their way wearing purple to carry red peonies, down the corridor. Crowbars had to be and those wearing white to carry mad­ used on the doors, there would be onna lilies. Next to the hearse were to splintering sounds and then there walk relatives, hunger strikers and Mrs would be the screams of the woman Pankhurst. Mrs Pankhurst, however, just being force fed. Emily put up as strong released from prison under the 'Cat and a fight as anyone, but she too was held Mouse Act' was arrested as she left her down and force fed, for the fortieth house to attend the funeral and so an time. independency meant that she was in empty carriage took her place. Thous­ When they left her cell Emily lay some ways detached from the WSPU. ands marched and thousands more still for a time, horrified by the tor­ She stopped writing her forceful letters looked on in respectful silence at what ture from which the women were to the national newspapers because they was the WSPU's last procession to mark suffering. Then she got to her feet, refused to print them. She did, how­ the death of its first martyr. broke her way out of her cell and threw ever, write numerous articles for The Emily's final protest was consistent herself down the stairs to land on the Suffragette and for Votes for Women. with all the acts of militancy she had wire netting thirty feet below. 'The And she continued to be arrested, one carried out in the last five years of her idea in my mind was "one big tragedy time for assaulting a Baptist minister life. An article she wrote in May 1913, may save others",' she reported after­ at Aberdeen station whom she had which was later found among her papers wards. She was unsuccessful; the wire mistaken for Lloyd George, but releas­ shows that she had been thinking about netting saved her from harm. The ed again when an anonymous donor what to do. In it she establishes a clear wardresses brought her back to the top paid her fine. connection between her strong religious of the staircase and, as they were At the beginning of Emily beliefs and her political beliefs. Its con­ remonstrating with her, she ran to the went into the WSPU office to ask for cluding sentences stated: 'To lay down staircase and threw herself down again. a flag. When the staff asked why she life for friends, that is glorious, inspir­ As the wardresses ran to seize her and wanted it she replied that it was best ing! But to re-enact the tragedy of drag her back to her cell she realised that no-one should know, but that they Calvary for generations yet unborn, that that her final chance was to throw would read about it in the papers. Later is the last consummate sacrifice of the herself as hard as possible from the in the week it was Derby Day and the Militant! Nor will she shrink from this netting to the staircase below. Crying, Epsom race track was lined with people Nirvana. She will be faithful unto this 'No surrender!' she threw herself head excitedly waiting the outcome of the last.' •

S Spare Rib Page Title Author Rights Usage Terms: The copyright status of In Praise of an Extremist is unknown. Please contact 6 In Praise of an Extremist Ferguson, Rebecca [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item. Usage Terms: The copyright status of Montage of Emily Davison in front of racecourse protest Montage of Emily Davison in front of 6 Fawcett Library from the Derby 1913 is unknown. Please racecourse protest from the Derby 1913 contact [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item. Usage Terms: The copyright status of In Praise of an Extremist is unknown. Please contact 7 In Praise of an Extremist Ferguson, Rebecca [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item. 7 Emily's funeral Isherwood, Pam Usage Terms: © Pam Isherwood Usage Terms: The copyright status of In Praise of an Extremist is unknown. Please contact 8 In Praise of an Extremist Ferguson, Rebecca [email protected] with any information you have regarding this item. 8 Title page of "The Suffragette" Isherwood, Pam Usage Terms: © Pam Isherwood