1913 Epsom Derby in front of King George V's horse, Anmer. The horse struck Davison as she tried to grab the horse's reins, the injuries she received proved fatal as she died 4 days later. Davison was a militant suffragette and a member of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she campaigned throughout her life for votes for women in the United Kingdom. The race was attended by an estimated 500,000 people, including the King and Queen. Aboyeur, ridden by Edwin Piper, took an early lead which he maintained into the straight, where he ran about three horse-widths away from the inside
Molesey most dramatic or as some have said 'outrageous' events of the suffragette campaign when two women extremists set fire to the grandstand in 1913 virtually destroying it in a huge and costly blaze that could be seen across large parts of south London, requiring fire crews from many surrounding areas to extinguish it. The attack was said to be in revenge for the death of Emily Davison at the Derby earlier that year and part of a deliberately violent and destructive campaign by the suffragette movement that in turn provoked an increasingly harsh crackdown by politicians, police and judiciary with