Town honours famous Suffragette Emily Davison

Jun 13 2008 by Dave Black, The Journal

RELATIVES of famed women’s rights campaigner Emily Davison gathered in Northumberland yesterday to celebrate the conclusion of a 15-year project to restore her final resting place.

Almost 50 members of the extended Davison family travelled from all over the UK and as far afield as Australia to see the restored grave and monument dedicated at a special church service in Morpeth.

The commemoration service in St Mary’s Church was followed by the laying of wreaths on the grave, where Longhorsley-born Emily is buried in the family plot.

One was laid by the titular head of the family, retired financier Geoffrey Davison, 66, who is Emily’s great, great nephew and made a special journey from his home in Sydney, Australia, for the occasion.

The event marked the successful end of a lengthy campaign – started by local Labour councillors in the early 1990s – to raise funds to restore the grave and monument and make it more of a tourist attraction.

Emily was buried in the Morpeth churchyard after dying in hospital from severe injuries received when she ran out in front of King George V’s horse, Anmer, during the 1913 Epsom Derby.

She was trying to pin the Suffragette colours to the horse as part of the movement’s campaign to win women the right to vote.

Emily gained a first-class honours degree at Oxford and became appalled at the lack of opportunities for women in late Victorian society, including a denial of the right to vote.

She joined the Suffragettes, took part in attacks on property and was sent to prison for her activities, on one occasion barricading herself in her cell to escape force-feeding.

Thousands of people turned out to watch her funeral cortege travel to St Mary’s churchyard.

The restoration project has used a local genealogist and old photographs to recreate the original look of the grave, including restoring iron railings which used to surround the plot but were removed to help with the war effort.

The monument has been restored and cleaned, nearby headstones made more upright and turfing carried out. Now a £50,000 heritage lottery grant is being used to develop an educational programme for schools and provide town trail signs directing visitors to the grave.

Yesterday, Geoffrey Davison, who first learned of his family link to the famous Suffragette as a 10-year-old schoolboy in New South Wales, was making his fourth visit to Morpeth in the last six years. The last was in 2003 for the 90th anniversary of Emily’s death.

He said: “This has been a magnificent effort by townspeople and all those supporting them. The Davison family is immensely proud to see the end result. The restoration of the family grave is superb.

“There are 48 family members here today and we are hoping that more and more people will now come and visit the grave, especially when it becomes signposted. Emily Wilding Davison no longer belongs only to the Davison family, but also to the people of Morpeth and Longhorsley. She is an integral part of the history of Northumberland.”

Coun Andrew Tebbutt, who chairs the Morpeth Town Council working group which oversaw the restoration project, said: “This is a magnificent day for all those who have worked so hard to achieve this success.”