Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913)
Local Memorials to this prominent Suffragette
Emily Wilding Davison
Emily Wilding Davison’s collision with the King’s horse at the 4 June 1913 Derby (and her death, from her injuries, four days later) was a key moment in the movement for women’s suffrage in the UK, details of which – and Miss Davison’s part in it – are set out in our separate article.
Notwithstanding the national significance of the 1913 tragedy, it took over a century for there to be any significant memorial to Miss Davison in Epsom. Indeed, it took some 80 years for there to be any memorial at all – this being the plaque on Epsom Cottage Hospital (where, four days after the Derby, she died from her injuries on 8 June 1913) placed as part of Epsom & Ewell Council’s celebration of its “famous people”. As will be seen below, this does not mention her death at the hospital – only that she was “cared for” there.
The commemorative plaque on Epsom Cottage Hospital.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2022
Shortly before the 2013 centenary of Miss Davison’s death, there were moves to erect a suitable memorial on Epsom Downs, near the racecourse. From the six responses to the invitation to submit designs, the proposal by Mary Branson was chosen. As shown below, her design (to be sited on the 5-way roundabout where Fir Tree Road meets the Downs) was for a hollow oval shape, to be illuminated after dark with the Suffrage colours of purple, white, and green. The oval shape was to be aligned so that, on the anniversary of Miss Davison’s death, it would frame the setting sun.
Main image: CGI mockup of the 2013 memorial proposal.
Inset: CGI mockup of the sunset effect.
Images courtesy of and © Mary Branson.
It was then found that necessary ground work was ruled out by underground utilities at the site, and no alternative location could be found that delivered the crucial sunset feature. Sadly, the project had to be abandoned. (It was, however, Mary Branson’s involvement in this Epsom project that, in due course, contributed to her being commissioned to create Parliament’s “New Dawn” suffrage memorial, unveiled in 2016).
The 2013 centenary was marked by various local events, which included two physical memorials. The first of these was the erection of a plaque – as in the photographs below – on the inside rail of the race course, marking the spot (just as Tattenham Corner turns into the home straight) from which Miss Davison stepped out on that fateful Derby Day.
Plaque to Miss Davison at Epsom Downs Race Course.
Photographs by Clive Gilbert © 2013
The other physical memorial was the planting of a tree in the grounds of in Epsom Cottage Hospital where she was taken after the Derby incident, dying from her injuries four days later, on 8 June 1913.
The Acer Davidii (arrowed) in the grounds of Epsom Cottage Hospital.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2022
The memorial plaque (sited at the foot of the arrow in the picture above).
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2022
(“Davidii” in the tree’s botanical name is apposite, but is not linked to Miss Davison. It actually commemorates the French priest, Jean-Pierre-Armand David, a missionary in China in the 1860s. In addition to his religious calling, he was a keen zoologist and botanist. In China, he catalogued many plants – including this maple – and animals for the first time. He is perhaps best known for “Père David’s deer”.)
In 2018, the original 2013 memorial proposal got under way again under a reconstituted Emily Davison Project board, this time aiming for something in central Epsom. Sculptor Christine Charlesworth (who specialises in figurative sculptures and portraiture) was commissioned to create a life-size sculpture. A suitable location was earmarked in the Market Place renovation plan (which also provided a new home for Epsom’s 2002 sculpture “Evocation of Speed“).
The pictures below shows an early stage in Christine Charlesworth’s work on the design. On the left, she is taking photographs of Philippa Bilton (a relative of Miss Davison – and who was involved in planting the memorial tree, as above) in Epsom Market Place. On the right is an early sketch of the work.
Images with thanks to and © The Emily Davison Project
These steps led to a maquette of the work, a copy of which, in June 2021, was on temporary display in Go Epsom’s windows in Ashley Road (the frontage of the former Ebbisham Hall).
Christine Charlesworth’s maquette of the proposed sculpture.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2021
Fundraising for the £50,000 target then started in earnest. Thanks to the generosity of many bodies and individuals, this was realised. When funds reached £40,000, work began on the making of the finished statue – the figure in bronze and the seat in granite.
The memorial was unveiled in a 40 minute ceremony on the morning of Tuesday 8 June 2021 – 108 years to the day from Miss Davison’s death. Proceedings were led by Sarah Dewing, Chair of the Emily Davison Memorial Project. Other speakers were: the sculptor, Christine Charlesworth; Mandu Reid of the Women’s Equality Party; Audrey Ardern-Jones, who read her poem,”Tattenham Corner (For Emily Davison)” written to mark the centenary of Emily’s death in 2013; Head Girls of Rosebery School, Priya Watkinson and Anna Champness; Penni Blythe, Director of 2013 “Emily Inspires” programme in Morpeth (Emily Davison’s home town); and Philippa Bilton, of Emily’s extended family. Their respective speeches celebrated Miss Davison’s life and her continuing legacy in providing inspiration for the future.
Sara Dewing introducing the ceremony.
A still from the YouTube video of the event.
The memorial, which had been covered by a drape in the Suffragette colours, was then unveiled by Philippa Bilton, Anna Champness and Priya Watkinson.
The just unveiled memorial.
A still from the YouTube video of the event.
The photographs below were taken on the afternoon of the unveiling.
The newly unveiled sculpture.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2021
The wording at each end of the granite bench.
(NB Her birth year was 1872, as on the brass plaque below.)
Photographs by Roger Morgan © 2021
The brass plaque by Miss Davison’s feet.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2021
The memorial is intentionally of the “sit by me” style and, with the kind permission of the two pictured, the photograph below shows it in use a couple of weeks later.
Photograph by Roger Morgan © 2021
Roger Morgan © 2021 & 2022
PS At the turn of the century, the housing development on the east of Tattenham Corner Station was named “Emily Davison Drive” – see below. Although this is less than half a mile from the site of Emily’s 1913 accident, the road is just outside the Borough boundary, coming within the area of Reigate and Banstead.
Emily Davison Drive, Tattenham Corner.
Photographs by Roger Morgan © 2022