Emily Davison
A militant suffragette who made the ultimate sacrifice, stepping onto the Epsom racecourse to shock the world into seeing the women's cause.
1872–1913 (age 41)·English suffragette and militant activist·Birthday: October 11·The Gilded Age
Biography
Emily Wilding Davison was not a polite campaigner. A highly educated woman with degrees from London and Oxford, she channeled her intellect and fury into militant activism for the Women's Social and Political Union. Davison believed in 'deeds, not words,' and her deeds were spectacularly disruptive: setting fire to mailboxes, hiding in the House of Commons overnight, and repeatedly enduring arrest, hunger strikes, and the brutality of force-feeding. Her final, fatal act at the 1913 Epsom Derby—stepping onto the track as the king's horse thundered by—was a calculated, desperate protest that transformed her into a martyr. Whether she intended to die or simply attach a suffragette scarf to the horse is debated, but her death galvanized the movement, making the struggle for votes impossible for the British public to ignore.
The Gilded Age
1860–1882
Born during or after the Civil War, they built industrial America — the railroads, the steel mills, the first skyscrapers. An era of massive wealth, massive inequality, and the belief that the future belonged to whoever could build it fastest.
Emily was born in 1872, placing them squarely in The Gilded Age. The events that shaped this generation — world wars, depression, and rapid industrialization — shaped the world they entered and the choices available to them.
#1 When Emily Was Born
The biggest hits of 1872
Emily's Life & Times
The world at every milestone
1872Born
President: Ulysses S. Grant
1877Started school
President: Rutherford B. Hayes
1885Became a teenager
Karl Benz builds the first gasoline-powered automobile
President: Grover Cleveland
1888Could drive
President: Grover Cleveland
1890Could vote
Wounded Knee massacre marks the end of the Indian Wars
President: Benjamin Harrison
1893Turned 21
World's Columbian Exposition dazzles Chicago
President: Grover Cleveland
1902Turned 30
The eruption of Mount Pelee kills 30,000 in Martinique
President: Theodore Roosevelt
1912Turned 40
Titanic sinks on its maiden voyage
President: William Howard Taft
1913Died at 41
The Federal Reserve is established
President: Woodrow Wilson
Key Achievements
- Became a martyr for the women's suffrage movement after her fatal protest at the 1913 Epsom Derby.
- Endured force-feeding 49 times while on hunger strike in prison, highlighting the brutality faced by suffragettes.
- Secretly hid in a cupboard in the House of Commons on the night of the 1911 census to list her address as 'the House of Commons.'
- Was arrested nine times for militant acts of protest, including arson and assault.
Did You Know?
She earned first-class honors in her final exams at Oxford University, though as a woman she could not receive a degree.
Davison was a qualified teacher.
The phrase 'Deeds Not Words' was engraved on her gravestone.
She once threw an iron bar through a train carriage window that she believed contained the Chancellor of the Exchequer, David Lloyd George.
“Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God.”
