Voters go the polls today 104 years to the day after Emily Davison died for women’s right to vote in the UK.
The suffragette was knocked unconscious after stepping out in front of King George V’s horse, Anmer, at the 1913 Epsom Derby and died four days later at the Old Cottage Hospital in Alexandra Road, Epsom.
She was trying to attach a flag in the suffragettes’ colours to the king’s horse on June 4, 1913, in her fight to secure the right to vote for women.
From November 2015: Campaign begins to honour suffragette Emily Davison's Blackheath history
Ms Davison was a leading member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, which was founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903 to demand votes for women.
Emily Davison achieved a first class honours degree in English Literature at Oxford University
Women were explicitly banned from voting in the 1832 Reform Act, but after the suffragettes’ campaign and women filling many roles during World War Two previously done by men, the franchise was extended to them.
Emily Davison's grave. She died #OTD in 1913 after a life dedicated to gaining votes for women pic.twitter.com/Qrbvyh6n7T
— Prof.Frank McDonough (@FXMC1957) June 8, 2017
The Representation of the People Act 1918 enfranchised all men and all women over 30 who met minimum property requirements. The franchise was extended further to all women over 21 – on equal terms with men – in the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928.
Today, men and women have equal voting rights in the UK.
From April 2013: Epsom Derby suffragette martyr Emily Davison remembered at plaque unveiling
From November 2016: The Old Cottage Hospital in Epsom opens Emily Davison Unit in honour of martyr for women's suffrage
The teacher and governess, who was born in Blackheath in south London, and achieved a first class honours degree in English Literature at Oxford University, is commemorated with plaques at Epsom Downs racecourse and at the hospital in which she died.
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