Emily Davison

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Emily Davison

Emily Wilding Davison (born October 11, 1872 in Blackheath , London , † June 8, 1913 in Epsom ) was an English suffragette who was known for her militant behavior. She has been detained eight times, including for offenses such as avoiding punishment , assaulting, throwing stones, smashing window panes and setting fire to mailboxes. While in prison, she barricaded herself in her cell, went on hunger strikes, was force-fed and attempted suicide to protest the mistreatment of the co-detained suffragettes.

After her death at the Epsom Derby in 1913, in which she came before the king's racehorse and was killed, she was considered a martyr of the women's rights movement.

Life

Emily Davison as a graduate of Oxford University

Early years and education

Davison was born in the London borough of Greenwich in Roxburgh House, Vanbrugh Park Road, the second of three children of the retired businessman Charles Edward Davison (1822-1893) and his second wife Margaret Caisley (1848-1918). She received lessons from a tutor in the family house Gaston House in Hertfordshire, and from 1885 she attended Kensington High School. In 1891 she received a scholarship and began to study literature at London's Royal Holloway College . After the death of her father, she had to drop out of this course because her mother could no longer pay the tuition fees. Davison then worked as a governess and teacher. This allowed her to finally studying biology, chemistry and the English language and literature at St Hugh's College of Oxford University afford where she graduated with honors, even if you like all the other female students of the time, the academic degree was denied.

Suffragette

In 1906, Emily Davison joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) and participated in various activities aimed at gaining the right to vote for women . In March 1909 she was arrested while trying to hand over a petition to Prime Minister Herbert Asquith calling for women to vote. She was found guilty of "disturbing the public" and sentenced to one month in prison. Four months later, Davison was detained again, this time for trying to give a speech in a hall in London in the presence of the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George . In September 1909, she and Mary Leigh and Constance Lytton received another two-month sentence for throwing stones.

At Strangeways Prison, Manchester , Davison went on repeated hunger strikes and, like many of her fellow activists, was force-fed . In Holloway Prison , she threw herself down an iron staircase in protest, severely damaging her spine.

On April 2, 1911, the night of the 1911 census, Emily Davison hid in a closet at the Palace of Westminster so that she could truthfully indicate her place of residence as the House of Commons on the census form . The Labor -Abgeordnete Tony Benn brought there in 1999, a plaque with the following inscription: "It is a modest reminder of a great woman with a great cause who never lived to see it prosper but played a significant part in making it possible." (Eng. about "It is a humble memory of a great woman with a great cause that she could never see flourish, but which she played a very important role in making it possible.")

Death at the Epsom Derby in 1913

Davison colliding with the king's racehorse

On June 4, 1913, she attended the famous Epsom Derby . During the race, Davison ran on the horse racing track and was overrun by King George V's horse . The jockey was only slightly injured; Davison, however, suffered severe internal injuries and a fractured skull. She died four days later in Epsom College Hospital without regaining consciousness. There are suspicions that by falling the royal horse, she wanted to demonstrate for the introduction of women's suffrage, but it remains unclear whether this was intended as a suicide. After her death, Davison was therefore venerated as a martyr by her fellow campaigners .

Emily Davison was buried in St Mary's Cemetery in Morpeth . The inscription on her tombstone reads Deeds, not words (“Deeds, not words”).

Aftermath

In the historical drama Suffragette - actions not words from 2015 that deals with the British women's movement in the early 20th century, Emily Davison of Natalie Press shown.

literature

  • Elizabeth Crawford: The women's suffrage movement: a reference guide, 1866-1928 , Routledge Chapman & Hall, London 2000, pp. 159-163
  • Liz Stanley, Ann Morley: Life and Death of Emily Wilding Davison , Women's Press Ltd, 1988
  • Melanie Phillips: The Ascent of Women: A History of the Suffragette Movement , Abacus, 2004
  • Vera di Campli San Vito: Davison, Emily Wilding (1872–1913), suffragette. IN: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 15: Daly - Dewar, 2004 Oxford University Press

Web links

Commons : Emily Davison  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Vera di Campli San Vito: Davison, Emily Wilding (1872-1913), suffragette. IN: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Volume 15: Daly - Dewar, 2004 Oxford University Pres
  2. ^ Higher Magazine , Royal Holloway College, No. 15 (2011), pp. 18-19
  3. ↑ BBC online: UK Politics Benn's secret tribute to suffragette martyr March 17, 1999 (English)
  4. ↑ Internet Movie Database Suffragette (2015)
personal data
SURNAME Davison, Emily
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Davison, Emily Wilding; Davidson, Emily Wilding
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British suffragette
DATE OF BIRTH October 11, 1872
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1913
Place of death Epsom