Miss Emily Wilding Davison

Other sources: http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4769024
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/ZALyW2jqmC2tKQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W_URTWjgR0
Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide 1866?1928 (1999)

Database linked sources: https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3209/whats-the-story-of-the-womens-suffrage-campaign
https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3203/what-were-the-suffrage-campaigners-fighting-for
https://www.suffrageresources.org.uk/activity/3211/why-do-historians-have-different-views-of-the-suffrage-movement

Additional Information: Emily joined the WSPU in 1906. In March 1909 she was one of a number of women arrested after taking part in a deputation to see the Prime Minister. She was sentenced to one month in prison and afterwards wrote, 'Through my humble work in the noblest of causes, I have come into a fullness of joy and an interest in living which I never before experienced.' This marked the beginning of a watershed of militant activity that was to culminate in her death. In July 1909, she was arrested for interrupting a meeting held by Liberal politician Lloyd George and was sentenced to two months, but went on hunger strike and was released after five days. In September, she was arrested with others for throwing iron balls through a window with the word 'bomb' taped to them, as a warning to Cabinet ministers meeting in Manchester. She was sentenced to two months in prison, during which time she broke windows in her cell and was thereafter handcuffed. She went on hunger strike and was released after two days. She was arrested again and released, and then arrested again for breaking windows in protest at women's exclusion from a meeting held by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. She was sentenced to two months' hard labour and this time forcibly fed when she went on hunger strike. She barricaded her cell door with the prison bed to prevent this practice, and so a hosepipe was fed through to her cell, where she was hosed with water for a quarter of an hour. Still she refused to open the door so it was eventually broken down. She was forcibly fed again and was ultimately released after serving eight days of her sentence. She later won a case against Strangeways Prison for her hosepipe treatment. Other arrests, hunger strikes and forcible feedings ensued in 1910, and in 1911, she evaded security officers three times to gain entry into the House of Commons (women were not allowed). She spent census survey night, on 2 April 1911, hidden in a broom cupboard and had to be recorded as 'a resident' there when discovered. Emily upped the ante of militant violence that year by setting fire to a pillar box and was sentenced to six months in prison, where she was forcibly fed. She threw herself over the railings in prison on two occasions to draw attention to the torturous practice of force-feeding, which was being regularly inflicted on suffragettes in prison, including herself. She was very badly injured but was nevertheless only released ten days before the end of her sentence. She was arrested numerous other times in the months that followed, sometimes using the alias 'Mary Brown'. On 4 June 1913, in her final militant act, she rushed onto the Derby racecourse in an attempt to grab the bridle of the King's horse to spoil the race. Sadly, the horse trampled her; she was seriously injured and died a few days later, having never regained consciousness. She was given a huge state-like funeral by the WSPU, which processed through the streets of London with everyone wearing white.