Political secretary

38

Single

31 Coram Street, London.

WSPU

Evades

Emily (1872-1913) went to Kensington High School and later obtained a first class degree having attended London and Oxford university. She worked chiefly as a governess and joined the WSPU in November 1906. In March 1909, Emily was one of several women arrested after taking part in a deputation to try and meet with Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. She was imprisoned for one month. This experience marked a turning point in Emily's life. Afterwards, she wrote a letter to the WSPU magazine, Votes for Women (11 June, 1909) expressing how: 'Through my humble work in this noblest of causes I have come into a fullness of joy and an interest in living which I have never before experienced'. Thereafter, Emily embarked upon a series of militant actions that eventually led to her death after being trampled under the King's horse when she rushed onto the track at Epsom Derby in 1913. Her militant actions included smashing windows, throwing fake bombs into a political meeting, and hiding herself in the Houses of Parliament whenever possible. One such occasion was on census night on the 2nd April, 1911, when Emily took part in the orchestrated suffragette boycott of the government census. She hid out in a cupboard there (where there is now a commemorative plaque) and upon her discovery a clerk recorded her place of residence on the census survey as the Houses of Parliament - a symbolic location for a disenfranchised woman. In fact, Emily was recorded twice on the government census survey in two different places (see images). She was also recorded - though evidently absent that night - at the place she was then living as a lodger in Coram Street where she appears on our suffrage map (approximate location). Her details were likely provided for the census by her 'helpful' housekeeper Mrs Bateman and far more accurately than those recorded by the parliament clerk. During the suffrage campaign, Emily endured multiple arrests, imprisonments, hunger strikes and was subjected to forcible feedings in prison. This was a brutal practice originally implemented to prevent suffragette 'martyr' deaths as well as their early release from prison as a result of hunger striking. Emily regularly visited Longhorsley in Northumberland during the campaign to visit her mother, Margaret, who ran a shop in the village (see image). She recuperated from spells of imprisonment in Longhorsley and was nursed back to health by her mother. Emily stayed in Longhorsley from late June 1912 for five months with short trips to other parts of the country. She wrote letters to many newspapers in the autumn of 1912 (see image) and called Longhorsley home. There is a plaque commemorating the final time she spent there before her death at Epsom Derby (see images). Upon Emily's death in 1913, she was given a lavish funeral through London's streets by the WSPU, though she had been considered something of a 'rogue' suffragette by them in life. The hate mail Emily received during her short time in a coma in hospital before death, demonstrates the vitriol some had for suffragettes. The letter (see image) written by 'An Englishman' hopes that she 'suffers torture' and laments the missed 'opportunity of starving and beating you to a pulp'. Emily's friends founded the Emily Wilding Davison club in her memory. Many thanks to Margaret Scott and Longhorsley Local History Society for providing information and images related to Emily's time in Longhorsley. You can read more about their research into Emily's life in Longhorsley at https://sites.google.com/site/longhorsleylocalhistorysociety/emily-wilding-davison. For general sources used see: Elizabeth Crawford, The Women's Suffrage Movement: A Reference Guide, 1866-1928 (London: 2001). There is much recent literature available on Emily as well as electronic sources, but a classic text is A. Morley and L Stanley, The Life and Death of Emily Wilding Davison (London: 1988). For more on Emily's relationship to the Houses of Parliament see https://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/transformingsociety/electionsvoting/womenvote/case-studies-women-parliament/ewd/. Contributed by: Tara Morton.