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
Emily Davison Channel 4 documentary determined that Davison was closer to the start of the bend than had been previously assumed, and would have had a better view of the oncoming horses. The contemporary news media were largely unsympathetic to Davison, and many publications "questioned her sanity and characterised her actions as suicidal". "The Pall Mall Gazette" said it had "pity for the dementia which led an unfortunate woman to seek a grotesque and meaningless kind of 'martyrdom' ", while "The Daily Express" described Davison as "A well-known malignant suffragette, ... [who] has a long record of convictions for complicity in suffragette