On This Day ...

On 8th June 1913 a woman called Emily Wilding Davison died in Epsom Cottage Hospital. Four days earlier she had run on to the track during the Derby and been hit by the King's horse, Anmer as she tried to grab his bridle. Emily was a Suffragette who had been force fed many times in prison and it is now believed that she was trying to attach a 'Votes for Women' banner to the horse's bridle.

The jockey, Herbert Jones, escaped with concussion but could never forget what had happened. At the funeral of the leading Suffragette Emmeline Pankhurst in 1928 he laid a wreath "to do honour to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davison".

Women were finally given the same voting rights as men in 1928.

Today, 8th June 2017, exactly 104 years after Emily Davison's death, I shall vote in the UK General Election. I will be voting Labour for the sake of our National Health Service and our schools and because I believe in a fairer future for all people. The important thing though is that I shall use my vote and I urge everyone - whatever their politics - to do the same.

Emily Davison, Teacher and Suffragette