Herbert Jones, The Forgotten Man

The past twelve months have featured a series of fantastic events to mark suffragette Emily Wilding Davison’s brave Epsom Derby protest, including the unveiling of a memorial plaque at Epsom racecourse and The Emily Tree event for a new generation of feminists.

 

 

However, very little is still known about Herbert Jones, the King’s jockey and unwitting player in the events of that dramatic Derby day.

In June 1913, Jones was a man at the peak of his career, a celebrity.  Although, like Emily, his later life is surrounded by hearsay and myth.

 

“There is no more popular jockey on the Turf”
The Daily Mirror

 

The following guest post is by Lesley Gray, author of The King’s Jockey, a thoughtful and evocative novel. Lesley has been very supportive of  TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE and saw a performance of the play in June 2013.

 

Herbert Jones was riding the horse that collided with Emily Wilding Davison in the Derby of 1913. He is also the hero of my novel, The King’s Jockey and so I have a particular affection for him.

At the time, Herbert Jones was one of the most well-known and best-loved sportsmen in the country. He had been in the public eye since 1900 when, in a real ‘rags to riches’ tale, he was propelled to fame at a young age. “There is no more popular jockey on the Turf”, said the Daily Mirror.

 

 

Herbert’s ability with horses was legendary and he could charm the most cantankerous of animals – it was said that Herbert “had an almost mesmeric influence” over them. With his horse-whispering skills, Herbert was bound to be a sensitive soul. Just how deeply he was affected by what happened was evident 15 years later, when at Emmeline Pankhurst’s funeral in 1928, Herbert laid a wreath bearing the message, “To do honour to the memory of Mrs Pankhurst and Miss Emily Davidson”.

 

 

History has quite rightly remembered the suffragette but we should not forget the jockey. And so it is right and fitting that TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE gives Herbert Jones a voice.

 

Lesley Gray is the author of The King’s Jockey  www.thekingsjockey.com

 

 

 

For more information about TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE, please click here.