Emily Wilding Davison was a prominent suffragette who died exactly 104 years ago after being crushed under the hooves of the king’s horse at Epson Derby.
King George V and Queen Mary witnessed the incident from the Royal Box.
Debate still rages over whether the 40-year-old meant to take her own life or whether she was simply trying to pin a banner calling for women to have the vote on the horse.
In her pocket Davison had a return train ticket and a ticket to a dance that night. She died in hospital four days later on 8 June 1913 after suffering a fractured skull and internal bleeding.
Davison was known for her extreme campaigning tactics and had been arrested nine times, including once for throwing stones at a carriage transporting chancellor David Lloyd George.
While jailed at Manchester’s Strangeways Prison, Davison went on hunger strike, resisting force-feeding by guards.
On election day 2017, men and women have been paying tribute to Davison and her fight to advance women’s rights.
In 1918 women who were over 30 and met certain property requirements were given the vote, but it was only in 1928 that women were granted the vote on the same terms as men.
