Was Emily Davison's Death Suicidal or Accidental?

Was Emily Wilding Davison’s death suicidal or accidental?

On 4 June 1913, Emily Wilding Davison attended the Epsom Derby. As the race was being run, she ran out on to the track and the horse owned by King George V, Anmer, collided with her and she fell to the ground, whereupon she was trampled by its hooves as it too fell. Meanwhile, the jockey, Herbert Jones, was thrown but had his foot caught in the stirrup. The horse did a somersault, got up, and resumed running the race, dragging the unconscious Jones along for a distance before his foot came loose. Bystanders unsuccessfully attempted to revive both Davison and Jones before the pair was carried off by ambulances. Emily Davison’s purpose was unclear and it is unknown whether this was deliberate suicide or just a mere accident.
There are many factors that support that Emily Davison had committed suicide. Emily was known as a person who supported the idea for killing oneself for a cause and called it glorious; she thought that anything was right if it was for a cause. This means that this incident could have been a suicide as this could be a “glorious” act for a cause, which is the women’s rights cause. Other factors that supported the idea of this being a suicide was that Emily Davison had attempted suicide, for her cause, before. This was by throwing herself into wire netting, during prison and also, throwing herself off the top of stairs; these turned out to be unsuccessful and the Derby event could have been another attempt, only, that time, it was successful. This idea was also supported as people had known Emily as a person who did strange and crazy things to draw attention to herself, one of her close friends had also said that Emily had said she would give up her life for the Suffragette cause. Also, because she was a well-known Suffragette, this event would have been good propaganda. The day before the Derby, Emily had hinted that she was going to do “something” at the Derby horserace. This implies that Emily had planned to do something special at the horse race but it doesn’t exactly mean that she planned to commit suicide. Emily was also not the type to go to horse races and it must have meant that she went to this horse race for a certain reason. Her behaviour on the day was calm to one of her acquaintance but to the man standing next to her, she seemed nervous. This doesn’t confirm that it was suicide as she would have been a little bit more confident in what she was doing if it as suicide, but it could be that maybe she was nervous about whether it was going to go the way she planned it to. When she got hit by the horse, someone raised the Suffragette flag which indicates that maybe this was planned because it couldn’t have been just an coincidence that some had been carrying a Suffragette poster to a horse race. She also had the Suffragette colours sewn into her coat which suggests that it was suicide as it probably meant she wanted people to know that she had died for the Suffragette issue.
Although there were many factors as to why Emily Davison’s death was a suicidal death, there are also many others that suggest the opposite - that it was an accidental death. Although she might have hinted that she would do “something” at the Derby the day before at the Summer Suffragette fair, it didn’t mean that she was planning suicide. When she was running towards the horse, she had had her hands raised above her head, as if she had wanted to put something on the King’s horse. This is a sensible prediction as it is obvious that advertising the Suffragette cause on the King’s horse would be excellent propaganda. It was also said that she had tried grabbing the horse’s reins so that she could display the Suffragette flag on the horse, which also backs up this theory. This means that she had only merely tried to tag something on the horse, and that she had no actual intention of actually dying. Another reason to why Emily’s death was accidental that is linked to the previous was that she was seen handing out leaflets, promoting her cause. Many people had predicted that she had thought that all of the horses had already passed and she was only trying to cross the track to get to the other side of it. This could be possible as since Emily was not the type for horse races, she might have not had known how fast horses can gallop and underestimated the time it would take the king’s horse to pass and therefore got hit by it. The jockey at the horse race, Steve Donaghue and acing historian, John Tyrell had found the idea of picking out a specific horse to be ridiculous as they were travelling from as fast as 40 miles per hour. There were also many other factors that suggested the death of Emily Davison was accidental. One was that and she had said that she would protest at the race without any tragedy, which includes death and she had also promised that she would attend the Suffragette fair, which was the 5th June, the day after race. To support this idea, when she had been searched after being hit, in her hand bag was a return ticket to London, where she lived. This suggests that she intended to go back home and had no intention to die. It was also said that if she were to commit suicide, she would have left a farewell message to her mother, who she had loved very much. As she had not left a message, this also suggests that she was not planning to commit suicide.
I think that it might have been an accidental death, although I am still quite sceptical about it. This is because there are many valid reasons for the death being a suicide like she had tried committing suicide earlier on in her life and she had also hinted doing “something” at the Derby. But these reasons were contradicted with other factors. She had tried committing suicide earlier and had said she would give up her life for the Suffragettes but since no one had known her true thoughts and feelings that day, it is unknown if she had wanted to kill herself. Also, she had hinted to do “something”, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she wanted to commit suicide, she may have wanted to put something on the horse, as others had predicted. This was also backed up with the fact that she had said she would protest without tragedy. Also, there were other significant factors such as the return ticket, the promise of being at the fair the day after and the absence of the farewell letter to her mother. Overall, I predict that her death was most likely to be accidental.