The suffragette Emily Davison is immortalized in a statue in the beautiful Carlisle Park a short distance from her gravesite in St Mary’s Churchyard.
Northumberland County Council and Morpeth Town Council commissioned artist Ray Lonsdale to create a statue of Emily Davison to commemorate her legacy and the 100th anniversary since English women won the right to vote. Lonsdale depicted Davison seated on a bench, pushing a bowl of food, as she did when she went on a hunger strike. She wears the suffragette sash and looks forward, proud; a “VOTE FOR WOMEN” flyer lies next to her, and a nearby plaque describes her story and contribution to British women’s voting rights.
The Duchess of Northumberland unveiled it with Davison’s distant relatives on September 11th, 2018.
Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913) was born in London to Morpeth-born parents. She received a scholarship to study literature at Royal Holloway College in 1891 but left after two years when her father passed away, and she could not afford the tuition. Davison worked as a governess and teacher to earn money for her education. It enabled her to attend St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and later at the University of London, graduating with honors. In 1906, Davison joined the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU); two years later, she quit her teaching job to dedicate herself to the union and become one of its most fearless militants; her actions made her get arrested nine times. She went on hunger strike seven times and was force-fed on forty-nine occasions.
On June 4th, 1913, Davison was seriously injured at the Epsom Derby when King George V’s horse hit her as she entered the course. She died four days later.
WSPU organized her funeral, attended by 5,000 suffragettes and their supporters; 50,000 people lined the streets of London to pay their respects; her coffin was sent by train to the family plot in Morpeth, Northumberland, her final resting place.
A statue of Davison was dedicated in Epsom in 2021.
Morpeth women’s rights champion remembered on special day
IT’S International Women’s Day and at Morpeth the occasion has been marked with tributes to suffragette Emily Wilding Davison.
Flowers and painted stones were left at her statue in Carlisle Park and a wreath was laid at her grave in St Mary’s churchyard where ribbons and beads were tied to the railings of the Davison family plot.
Morpeth women’s rights champion remembered on special day
IT’S International Women’s Day and at Morpeth the occasion has been marked with tributes to suffragette Emily Wilding Davison.Flowers and painted stones were left at her statue in Carlisle Park and a wreath was laid at her grave in St Mary’s churchyard where ribbons and beads were tied to the railings of the Davison family plot.
