Emily Wilding Davison
The centenary of the death of Emily Wilding Davison, who was fatally injured apparently trying to attach a suffrage banner to the Kings horse running the Darby at Epsom, seems to have captured the imagination of the press this year as never before. Part of this has to be due to the fact that it was caught on film. It is has suddenly become an opportunity to remember the militant suffrage activity that was taking place across the UK 100 years ago, as well as to review feminist actions and campaigns today.
Davison’s death was never an inspiration for me. It seemed both a pointless death as well as putting an innocent jockey and the horse at risk. Suffragette militancy was usually aimed at private property not at people, Davidson’s act was different, she was the one who ‘threw herself under the horse’. But on Tuesday I learned a lot more about Emily, about how a highly principled and educated woman could end up risking death to campaign for something she felt all people of conscience must have: a right to vote. Her struggled for her own education was part of her struggle for self-determination. We take both for granted at our peril. I was in the audience for the play: ‘Emily Wilding Davison: the one who threw herself under the horse’. This is a wonderful one woman performance written by Ros Connelly and performed by Elizabeth Crarer. On Tuesday it was performed at St George’s Church Bloomsbury, where the memorial service for Davison was held on the 14th June 1913, when her coffin was carried through London by a procession of Suffragettes. The play helped me understand Emily, her motivation, and how ‘The Cause’ became the most important thing in her life: ‘Deeds not Words’. Sitting watching the play in the church was one of those experiences where time collapses and you know what really holds the material world together- people and events across a hundred years and more – are ideas: the ideas we hold about ourselves.
The play heralds the beginning of the Wilding Festival: a new arts festival held in St George’s church which takes Davison as its inspiration. Great idea – and there are still tickets available.
