On June 4, 1913, a woman stepped onto the track during the Epsom Derby, one of Britain’s most prestigious horse races. As King George V’s horse, Anmer, galloped toward the finish line, she moved into its path. Moments later, she was struck to the ground in full view of spectators and newsreel cameras. Four days later, she died of her injuries. The woman was Emily Wilding Davison, a militant suffragette whose death shocked the nation and turned global attention toward the British women’s suffrage movement.
A Silent Protest in Motion
Emily Davison was born in 1872 in London to a wealthy businessman and a much younger former housekeeper. After her father’s death, she left Royal Holloway College due to lack of funds, later completing her studies at Oxford and the University of London.
She became a teacher and governess before joining Emmeline Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906. By 1909, she had left paid employment to work full-time for the suffrage cause.
Davison was arrested nine times and endured 49 force-feedings during hunger strikes. She once hid overnight in a broom cupboard in the House of Commons so she could record Parliament as her residence in the 1911 census. In 1912, she threw herself down an iron staircase at Holloway Prison to protest brutal treatment. She suffered head and spinal injuries.
Trampled at the Derby
At the Epsom Derby in 1913, Davison emerged from the crowd and walked onto the racecourse near Tattenham Corner. Newsreel footage shows her raising her hand as Anmer approached.
The impact threw her violently to the ground and unseated the jockey. In her possession were suffragette flags. Whether her intention was to attach them to the horse’s bridle, or whether she expected to survive, remains debated. She died from internal injuries on June 8.
A Funeral Like No Other
Davison’s funeral was held on June 14, 1913. Organized by the WSPU, it drew tens of thousands of supporters. A procession of women in white dresses and suffragette sashes marched behind her coffin through London to King’s Cross Station. From there, her body was transported to her family’s plot in Morpeth, Northumberland.
The Footage That Reappeared
During production of the 2015 film Suffragette, previously undeveloped nitrate film of Davison’s funeral was discovered in the British Film Institute’s archive. The actual footage was included at the end of the film, showing Edwardian women marching in silence.
The final credits listed the years women gained the vote in countries around the world. Davison’s final act—whether fatal miscalculation or planned protest—was captured on film and became part of the visual record of the suffrage fight.
