{"id":308,"date":"2013-07-14T22:01:05","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T22:01:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/?p=308"},"modified":"2017-04-15T21:19:08","modified_gmt":"2017-04-15T21:19:08","slug":"an-eye-witness-account-of-emily-wilding-davisons-funeral-procession-june-1913","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/?p=308","title":{"rendered":"An Eyewitness Account of Emily Wilding Davison’s Funeral Procession, June 1913"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday 14 June 2013 the premiere of my Emily Wilding Davison TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE took place in Morpeth not far from where Emily is buried.<\/p>\n

My next guest post is by women’s suffrage expert Elizabeth Crawford<\/strong><\/a>, who discovered a fascinating eyewitness account of Emily’s London funeral procession organised by the WSPU one hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

I met Elizabeth earlier this year and she gave me some information about Norah Balls, a North East suffragette who I had previously thought was from a working class background.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Elizabeth’s invaluable advice I listened to an interview with Norah at the Women’s Library and realised my mistake! Norah was swiftly replaced by Bella Faulkner, who was in fact Connie Ellis’ “suffragette pal” and the right woman all along.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In June 1913 Kate Frye was working as an organizer for the New Constitutional Society for Women\u2019s Suffrage in Norfolk and, on hearing of Emily Wilding Davison\u2019s death, promptly went shopping for a black hat. Having arranged for a black coat and skirt to be sent from her family home, on Saturday 14 June Kate travelled to London. She met up with John Collins, her fianc\u00e9, changed into mourning clothes and set out to follow Emily Wilding Davison\u2019s funeral procession.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Campaigning<\/a>CAMPAIGNING FOR THE VOTE – Kate Parry Frye’s SUFFRAGE DIARY, Ed Elizabeth Crawford<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The following is part of her diary entry for the day. Presumably she identified the Bloomsbury \u2018ladies in kimonos\u2019 as prostitutes.<\/p>\n

\u2018We got to Victoria – the procession had just started. We saw it splendidly at the start until we were driven away from our position and then couldn\u2019t see for the crowds – and then we walked right down Buckingham Palace Road and joined in the procession at the end.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"EWD<\/a><\/p>\n

Photograph of Funeral Procession in Hart Street, as it approached St George\u2019s Church, Bloomsbury<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was really most wonderful – the really organized part \u2013 groups of women in black with white lilies \u2013 in white and in purple \u2013 and lots of clergymen and special sort of pall bearers each side of the coffin. She gave her life publicly to make known to the public the demand of Votes for Women – it was only fitting she should be honoured publicly by the comrades. It must have been most imposing.<\/p>\n

The crowds were thinner in Piccadilly but the windows were filled – but the people had all tramped north and later on the crowds were tremendous and oh, what a quality filled the windows and pavements in Bloomsbury. The ladies in the kimonos were a nightmare to me. The people who stood watching were mostly reverent and well behaved. We were with the rag tag and bobtail element but they were very earnest people.<\/p>\n

\"EWD<\/a><\/p>\n

Programme for Emily Wilding Davison\u2019s London Funeral Procession<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was tiring. Sometimes we had long waits \u2013 sometimes the pace was tremendous. Most of the time we could hear a band playing the funeral march. Near Kings Cross the procession lost all semblance of a procession \u2013 one crowded process \u2013 everyone was moving. We lost our banner \u2013 we all got separated and our idea was to get away from the huge crowd of unwashed unhealthy creatures pressing us on all sides.<\/p>\n

We went down the Tube way. But I didn\u2019t feel like a Tube and went through to the other side – finding ourselves in Kings Cross station. Saying we wanted tea we went on the platform and there was the train – the special carriage for the coffin \u2013 and, finding a seat, sank down and we didn\u2019t move until the train left. Lots of the processionists were in the train, which was taking the body to Northumberland for interment \u2013 and another huge procession tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\"Emily<\/a><\/p>\n

Emily Wilding Davison being tended by policemen as she lay injured on the ground at Tattenham Corner<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To think she had had to give her life because men will not listen to the claims of reason and of justice.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Extract taken from CAMPAIGNING FOR THE VOTE – Ed by Elizabeth Crawford.
\nAvailable online from Francis Boutle Publishers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Guest blog post by Elizabeth Crawford<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"To<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Working in partnership with Arts Council England, Northumberland County Council’s Emily Inspires!<\/em>\u00a0project and the Greater Morpeth Development Trust, TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE had a very successful two and a half week tour in June 2013.<\/p>\n

At the heart of the programme was the determination to create an ongoing Public platform for Emily and her campaigning for equality. \u00a0With this in mind it is hoped that the play will be able to build on the success of June 2013 and continue to be a part of Emily’s important legacy.<\/p>\n

For further information, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Please do get in touch.<\/p>\n

@katewilloughby8<\/a>
\n@2FCPlay<\/a>
\nFacebook.com\/ToFreedomsCause\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Votesforwomenstrap\"<\/p>\n

\n

\"Twitter\"\/<\/a>\"LinkedIn\"\/<\/a>\"Share\"\/<\/a><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Saturday 14 June 2013 the premiere of my Emily Wilding Davison TO FREEDOM’S CAUSE took place in Morpeth not far from where Emily is buried. My next guest post is by women’s suffrage expert Elizabeth Crawford, who discovered a fascinating eyewitness account of Emily’s London funeral procession organised by the WSPU one hundred years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6,22,16],"tags":[26,31,78,24,27,7,10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308"}],"version-history":[{"count":32,"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4929,"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308\/revisions\/4929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.katewilloughby.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}