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Evelyn, Alan Beith MP and Rev. Maureen Chester put their carnations on Emily's grave. |
Emily Wilding Davison – 8th June 1913
It would be fascinating to know what Emily Wilding Davison thought of BPW’s aim to encourage women to take part in public life. Emily believed that
when women have the vote they can shape government policy and legislation and thus reduce suffering.
Evelyn Hudson and I (both members of BPW Morpeth) were privileged to attend the celebration of the restoration of her grave in St Mary the Virgin’s church in Morpeth, Northumberland. The guest of honour was her great, great nephew who flew in from Australia. In a moving tribute, Geoffrey Davison told how he first heard about Emily during a history lesson from a Scottish teacher at his remote school in New South Wales. Sharing the same name, the teacher asked if he was related to the Suffragette and on return home that night he discovered to his amazement that he is. Now a widower, he finds it quite ironic that his daughters find him at the head of the Davison clan and a supporter of women’s rights, when he is quite a traditional Sydney male financier.
Fifty of Emily’s relatives filled St Mary’s church along with the Mayors of Newcastle, Morpeth, Ashington, local MPs such as Dennis Murphy and Alan Beith, while Evelyn and I represented women’s movements. I did feel that Emily would have been pleased that the service was shared by Maureen Chester, one of Britain’s first ordained women vicars.
Emily was buried in Morpeth after dying from massive injuries including a fractured skull four days after trying to pin the Suffragette colours on to King George V’s horse, Anmer, during the 1913 Derby. Her funeral drew the largest crowd ever seen at a non royal funeral. In fact Emily had two funerals. The first in St George’s Church in Bloomsbury and then her coffin was taken by train to Morpeth. Originally from London, Emily moved to Longhorsley, five minutes north of Morpeth, where her mother kept the bakery, when her father died. The colours – which resemble a long, silk scarf with “Votes for Women” inscribed upon it – were draped over the pulpit. It was moving to touch something which I have seen on old newsreel and to see the marks of her injuries.
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Jane dressed as a Suffragette
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Sue Ashmore with the Suffragette colours
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Evelyn given a white carnation
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uring the service we heard many tales of her efforts to get women the vote and the deprivations she was prepared to endure to accomplish her goal. Tony Benn placed a plaque inside the cupboard where Emily Davison hid on the night of July 13th 1911 so that she could list her residence as the House of Commons on the census. Imprisonment in Aberdeen jail for throwing a brick at someone she believed to be Lloyd George but turned out to be a vicar and of course force feeding 49 times were only two of the horrific events she survived. Despite her first class honours degree in English from St Hugh’s college Oxford
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