Emily Davison.
Emily Wilding Davison, the daughter of Charles Davison (1822–1893) and Margaret Caisley Davison (1848–1918), was born at at Roxburgh House, Vanbrugh Park Road, Greenwich on 11th October, 1872. After attending Kensington High School (1885–91) she won a place at Royal Holloway College to study literature but two years later she was forced to leave after her recently widowed mother was unable to find the £20 a term fees. Davison now found work as a governess before spending a term (April–June 1895) at St Hugh's Hall, and in the summer of 1895 achieved first-class honours in English in the Oxford University examination for women, though, as Oxford degrees were closed to women, this did not enable her to graduate. In 1895 she began teaching at the Church of England College for Girls at Edgbaston. The following year she found employment at Seabury School, Worthing (1896–8). Eventually she raised enough money to return to university education. After graduating from University of London she obtained a post teaching the children of a family in Berkshire. Emily joined the Women's Social and Political Union in 1906. She gradually became more and more involved in WSPU activities and in June 1908, was one of the chief stewards at a WSPU demonstration in London. The following year Emily gave up full-time teaching so that she could devote more of her time to the WSPU. Emily also became involved with the Workers' Educational Association. In March 1909, Emily Davison was arrested while attempting to hand a petition to the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith. Emily was found guilty of causing a disturbance and sentenced to one-month imprisonment. Four months later she was in prison again for trying to get into a hall in London where David Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, was making a speech. Emily went on hunger strike and after five days she was released. In September 1909 she received a sentence of two months for stone throwing. Once again, she was released after going on hunger strike. A few days after leaving prison, Emily Davison, Mary Leigh and Constance Lytton were caught throwing stones at a car taking David Lloyd George to a meeting in Newcastle. The stones were wrapped in Emily's favourite words: "Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God." The women were found guilty and sentenced to one month's hard labour at Strangeways Prison. The women went on hunger strike but this time the prison authorities decided to force-feed the women. In an attempt to avoid force-feeding, Emily used prison furniture to barricade the door of her prison cell. A prison officer climbed a ladder and after forcing the nozzle of a hosepipe through a window, filled up the cell with water. Emily was willing to die, but before the cell had been completely filled with water the door was broken down. James Keir Hardie, the leader of the Labour Party, complained about the treatment of Emily Davison in the House of Commons. The general public appeared to agree that Davison had been badly treated. Emily decided took legal action against the men at Strangeways who had been responsible for the hosepipe incident. On 19th January 1910, Judge Parry pronounced in Emily's favour, awarding damages of forty shillings.