TWT #155 –

On June 4th, 1913, prominent suffragette Emily Davison, for no apparent reason, ran onto a horse track during a race, was trampled by a horse, and died days later.

This is pretty solid proof that no matter what you accomplish and work towards throughout your entire life, if the last thing you do is something stupid, that’s all people will remember you for.

Emily accomplished quite a bit for the British suffragette movement.

After joining the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906 and rising quickly through the ranks, Emily was involved in tons of activist demonstrations and was arrested multiple times. Over the next few years she:

Fought police officers

Threw rocks at the window of a men-only political meeting

Hid overnight in the vents of the House of Commons in order to sneak into a meeting the next morning

Broke more windows and was arrested in protest of men refusing to vote to allow women to vote

Hid in the cupboard of a church in order to avoid being counted in the state census

Wrote almost 200 letters to over 50 newspapers, some of which were published

Set fire to post-boxes (not sure how this relates to the suffragette movement, except maybe men send more mail?)

Went on hunger strike multiple times in prison and was force-fed by guards

Eventually jumped from an internal prison balcony in an attempt to commit suicide to bring the force-feeding conversation to the forefront of social commentary (okay, this one was dumb too)

But is this article about any of that?

Nope.

This article is about the last dumb demonstration Emily took part in.

By the time June of 1913 rolled around, the WSPU was actually sick of Emily (seeing as how she kept lighting post boxes on fire and breaking windows), and they broke ties and disavowed her.

So here Emily was, alone, looking for more ways to demonstrate and her bright idea was to…jump in front of a race horse?

What?

No one actually knows exactly what Emily was trying to accomplish here. Whether she was trying to pin a flag to a horse, disturb the race in general, or actually commit suicide.

Regardless, as the horses were turning the final corner, Emily waited for some to pass before jumping onto the track, waving her arms, and getting fucking destroyed by a giant pure-muscle beast moving at over 35 mph.

Now, there is actually video of this accident happening, but I implore you to watch only if you have a Terrible sense of humor (it’s pretty dark, folks).

Alas, Emily died 4 days later from a skull fracture.

Luckily the horse was okay.

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