Emily Davison was born in Blackheath, London, and had a university education, obtaining first-class honours in her final exams at Oxford, though women were not at that time admitted to degrees.

She joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906, and immediately involved herself in their more militant activities. She was arrested and imprisoned for various offences; went on hunger strike and was force-fed in Holloway prison, where she attempted suicide as a protest.

Emmeline Pankhurst believed that it was her experiences in prison that brought Emily Davison to the conclusion that only the ultimate sacrifice would bring any success to the Suffragettes. Emmeline wrote in “My Own Story” that Emily decided that only the loss of life “would put an end to the intolerable torture of women.”

Film of the incident shows her stepping out in front of the horse, Anmer, as it rounded Tattenham Corner, with Davison carrying the banner of the WSPU. But instead of stopping, Anmer trampled her, knocking her unconscious. Eyewitnesses at the time were divided as to her motivation, with many believing that she had simply intended to cross the track, believing that all horses had passed, while others reported that she had attempted to pull down the King’s horse. She died four days later in hospital, due to a fractured skull.

Emmeline Pankhurst described Emily Davison’s death in her autobiography ‘My Own Story’, as follows:.

Emily Davison clung to her conviction that one great tragedy, the deliberate throwing into the breach of a human life, would put an end to the intolerable torture of women. And so she threw herself at the King’s horse, in full view of the King and Queen and a great multitude of their Majesties’ subjects.

Mary Richardson was with Emily Davison at the Derby in 1913. Mary Richardson wrote about the incident in her book ‘Laugh a Defiance’.

A minute before the race started she raised a paper on her own or some kind of card before her eyes. I was watching her hand. It did not shake. Even when I heard the pounding of the horses’ hoofs moving closer I saw she was still smiling. And suddenly she slipped under the rail and ran out into the middle of the racecourse. It was all over so quickly.