Editing Emily Davison (section)

===Activism===
{{See also|Suffragette bombing and arson campaign}}
Davison joined the [[Women's Social and Political Union]] (WSPU) in November 1906.{{sfn|Purvis|2013a|p=354}} Formed in 1903 by [[Emmeline Pankhurst]], the WSPU brought together those who thought that militant, confrontational tactics were needed to achieve their ultimate goal of women's suffrage.{{sfn|Naylor|2011|p=18}}{{efn|Such tactics included vandalism, [[arson]] and planting bombs.{{sfn|Webb|2014|pp=xiii–xiv, 60}}}} Davison joined in the WSPU's campaigning and became an officer of the organisation and a chief steward during marches.{{sfn|Sleight|1988|p=32}} In 1908 or 1909 she left her job teaching and dedicated herself full-time to the union.{{sfn|San Vito|2008}} She began taking increasingly confrontational actions, which prompted [[Sylvia Pankhurst]]—the daughter of Emmeline and a full-time member of the WSPU—to describe her as "one of the most daring and reckless of the militants".{{sfn|Pankhurst|2013|loc=6363}}{{sfn|Naylor|2011|p=19}} In March 1909 she was arrested for the first time; she had been part of a deputation of 21 women who marched from [[Caxton Hall]] to see the prime minister, [[H. H. Asquith]],{{sfn|Crawford|2003|p=160}} the march ended in a fracas with police and she was arrested for "assaulting the police in the execution of their duty". She was sentenced to a month in prison.{{sfn|A. J. R.|1913|p=221}}{{sfn|Tanner|2013|p=167}} After her release she wrote to ''Votes for Women'', the WSPU's newspaper, saying that "Through my humble work in this noblest of all causes I have come into a fullness of joy and an interest in living which I never before experienced".{{sfn|Davison, ''Votes for Women'', 1909}}
 
[[File:Forcefeeding.jpg|thumb|upright|left|alt=A woman in prison is tied to a chair while four members of staff force-feed her|A suffragette being force-fed in [[HM Prison Holloway|Holloway prison]], {{circa}}&nbsp;1911]]
In July 1909 Davison was arrested with fellow suffragettes [[Mary Leigh]] and [[Alice Paul]] for interrupting a public meeting from which women were barred, held by the [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]], [[David Lloyd George]]; she was sentenced to two months for obstruction. She went on [[Hunger strike#British and American suffragettes|hunger strike]] and was released after five and a half days,{{sfn|Crawford|2003|p=160}}{{sfn|Colmore|1988|pp=21–22}} during which time she lost {{convert|21|lb|kg}}; she stated that she "felt very weak" as a result.{{sfn|Gullickson|2008|p=465}} She was arrested again in September the same year for throwing stones to break windows at a political meeting; the assembly, which was to protest at the [[People's Budget|1909 budget]], was only open to men. She was sent to [[Strangeways prison]] for two months. She again went on hunger strike and was released after two and a half days.{{sfn|Colmore|1988|p=24}} She subsequently wrote to ''[[The Manchester Guardian]]'' to justify her action of throwing stones as one "which was meant as a warning to the general public of the personal risk they run in future if they go to Cabinet Ministers' meetings anywhere". She went on to write that this was justified because of the "unconstitutional action of Cabinet Ministers in addressing 'public meetings' from which a large section of the public is excluded".{{sfn|Davison, ''The Manchester Guardian'', 1909}}{{sfn|Bearman|2007|p=878}}
 
Davison was arrested again in early October 1909, while preparing to throw a stone at the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|cabinet minister]] [[Walter Runciman, 1st Viscount Runciman of Doxford|Sir Walter Runciman]]; she acted in the mistaken belief the car in which he travelled contained Lloyd George. A suffragette colleague—[[Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton|Constance Lytton]]—threw hers first, before the police managed to intervene. Davison was charged with attempted assault, but released; Lytton was imprisoned for a month.{{sfn|Colmore|1988|pp=24–25}} Davison used her court appearances to give speeches; excerpts and quotes from these were published in the newspapers.{{sfn|Stanley|1995|p=236}} Two weeks later she threw stones at Runciman at a political meeting in [[Radcliffe, Greater Manchester]]; she was arrested and sentenced to a week's [[hard labour]]. She again went on hunger strike, but the government had authorised the use of [[Force-feeding#United Kingdom|force-feeding]] on prisoners.{{sfn|A. J. R.|1913|p=221}}{{sfn|Purvis|2013a|p=355}} The historian Gay Gullickson describes the tactic as "extremely painful, psychologically harrowing, and raised the possibility of dying in jail from medical error or official misjudgment".{{sfn|Gullickson|2008|p=465}} Davison said that the experience "will haunt me with its horror all my life, and is almost indescribable.&nbsp;... The torture was barbaric".{{sfn|Collette|2013|p=133}} Following the first episode of forced feeding, and to prevent a repeat of the experience, Davison barricaded herself in her cell using her bed and a stool and refused to allow the prison authorities to enter. They broke one of the window panes to the cell and turned a fire hose on her for 15 minutes, while attempting to force the door open. By the time the door was opened, the cell was six inches deep in water. She was taken to the prison hospital where she was warmed with hot water bottles. She was force-fed shortly afterwards and released after eight days.{{sfn|Gullickson|2008|pp=468–469}}{{sfn|Collette|2013|pp=133–135}} Davison's treatment prompted the [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] MP [[Keir Hardie]] to ask a question in the House of Commons about the "assault committed on a woman prisoner in Strangeways";{{sfn|Hardie, 1909}} Davison sued the prison authorities for the use of the hose and, in January 1910, she was awarded 40 [[Shilling (British coin)|shillings]] in damages.{{sfn|Colmore|1988|pp=32–33}}
 
In April 1910 Davison decided to gain entry to the floor of the House of Commons to ask Asquith about the vote for women. She entered the [[Palace of Westminster]] with other members of the public and made her way into the heating system, where she hid overnight. On a trip from her hiding place to find water, she was arrested by a policeman, but not prosecuted.{{sfn|Sleight|1988|pp=42–43}}{{sfn|"Emily Wilding Davison found hiding in a ventilation shaft"}} The same month she became an employee of the WSPU and began to write for ''Votes for Women''.{{sfn|Colmore|1988|pp=36–37}}{{sfn|Purvis|2013a|p=356}}{{efn|Although some sources, including Colmore and Purvis, state that Davison was employed in the Information Department of the union, the journalist [[Fran Abrams]] writes that Davison was never a salaried member of WSPU staff, but she was paid for the articles she provided for ''Votes for Women''.{{sfn|Abrams|2003|p=167}}}}
 
A bipartisan group of MPs formed a Conciliation Committee in early 1910 and proposed a [[Conciliation Bill]] that would have brought the vote to a million women, so long as they owned property. While the bill was being discussed, the WSPU put in a temporary truce on activity. The bill failed that November when Asquith's [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] government reneged on a promise to allow parliamentary time to debate the bill.{{sfn|Foot|2005|pp=210–211}} A WSPU delegation of around 300 women tried to present him with a petition, but were prevented from doing so by an aggressive police response; the suffragettes, who called the day [[Black Friday (1910)|Black Friday]], complained of assault, much of which was sexual in nature.{{sfn|Gullickson|2008|p=470}}{{sfn|Purvis|2002|p=150}} Davison was not one of the 122 people arrested, but was incensed by the treatment of the delegation; the following day she broke several windows in the [[Clerk of the Crown in Chancery|Crown Office]] in parliament. She was arrested and sentenced to a month in prison. She went on hunger strike again and was force-fed for eight days before being released.{{sfn|Crawford|2003|p=161}}{{efn|Despite the loss of the Conciliation Bill, the WSPU maintained the truce until May 1911 when a second Conciliation Bill, having passed its Second Reading, was dropped by the government for internal political reasons. The WSPU saw this as a betrayal and resumed their militant activities.{{sfn|Foot|2005|pp=211–212}}}}
 
On the night of the 1911 census, 2 April, Davison hid in a cupboard in [[St Mary Undercroft]], the chapel of the Palace of Westminster. She remained hidden overnight to avoid being entered onto the census; the attempt was part of a wider suffragette action to avoid being listed by the state. She was found by a cleaner, who reported her presence; Davison was arrested but not charged. The Clerk of Works at the House of Commons completed a census form to include Davison in the returns. She was included in the census twice, as her landlady also included her as being present at her lodgings.{{sfn|Liddington|Crawford|Maund|2011|pp=108, 124}}{{sfn|"A Night in Guy Fawkes Cupboard", ''Votes For Women'', 1911}}{{efn|Davison also spent a night in the Palace of Westminster in June 1911.{{sfn|A. J. R.|1913|p=221}}}} Davison had continually written letters to the press to put forward the WSPU position in a non-violent manner—she had 12 published in ''The Manchester Guardian'' between 1909 and 1911—and she undertook a campaign between 1911 and 1913 during which she wrote nearly 200 letters to over 50 newspapers.{{sfn|Collette|2013|p=173}}{{sfn|Tanner|2013|p=183}} Several of her letters were published, including about 26 in ''[[The Sunday Times]]'' between September 1910 and 1912.{{sfn|Crawford|2014|pp=1006–1007}}
 
[[File:Emily Davison, c. 1912-13.jpg|thumb|upright|Davison in 1912 or 1913]]
Davison developed the new tactic of setting fire to postboxes in December 1911. She was arrested for arson on the postbox outside parliament and admitted to setting fire to two others. Sentenced to six months in [[Holloway Prison]], she did not go on hunger strike at first, but the authorities required that she be force-fed between 29 February and 7 March 1912 because they considered her health and appetite to be in decline. In June she and other suffragette inmates barricaded themselves in their cells and went on hunger strike; the authorities broke down the cell doors and force-fed the strikers.{{sfn|Colmore|1988|pp=43–44}} Following the force-feeding, Davison decided on what she described as a "desperate protest&nbsp;... made to put a stop to the hideous torture, which was now our lot" and jumped from one of the interior balconies of the prison.{{sfn|Davison|1913|p=577}} She later wrote:
 
<blockquote>...&nbsp;as soon as I got out I climbed on to the railing and threw myself out to the wire-netting, a distance of between 20 and 30 feet. The idea in my mind was "one big tragedy may save many others". I realised that my best means of carrying out my purpose was the iron staircase. When a good moment came, quite deliberately I walked upstairs and threw myself from the top, as I meant, on to the iron staircase. If I had been successful I should undoubtedly have been killed, as it was a clear drop of 30 to 40 feet. But I caught on the edge of the netting. I then threw myself forward on my head with all my might.{{sfn|Davison|1913|p=577}}</blockquote>
 
She cracked two [[vertebrae]] and badly injured her head. Shortly afterwards, and despite her injuries, she was again force-fed before being released ten days early.{{sfn|A. J. R.|1913|p=221}}{{sfn|Cawthorne|2017}} She wrote to ''[[The Pall Mall Gazette]]'' to explain why she "attempted to commit suicide":
 
<blockquote>I did it deliberately and with all my power, because I felt that by nothing but the sacrifice of human life would the nation be brought to realise the horrible torture our women face! If I had succeeded I am sure that forcible feeding could not in all conscience have been resorted to again.{{sfn|Davison|1912|p=4}}</blockquote>
 
As a result of her action Davison suffered discomfort for the rest of her life.{{sfn|Naylor|2011|p=19}} Her arson of postboxes was not authorised by the WSPU leadership and this, together with her other actions, led to her falling out of favour with the organisation; Sylvia Pankhurst later wrote that the WSPU leadership wanted "to discourage&nbsp;... [Davison] in such tendencies&nbsp;... She was condemned and ostracized as a self-willed person who persisted in acting upon her own initiative without waiting for official instructions."{{sfn|Pankhurst|2013|loc=9029}} A statement Davison wrote on her release from prison for ''[[The Suffragette (newspaper)|The Suffragette]]''—the second official newspaper of the WSPU—was published by the union after her death.{{sfn|San Vito|2008}}{{sfn|Morley|Stanley|1988|p=74}}
 
In November 1912 Davison was arrested for a final time, for attacking a [[Baptist]] minister with a horsewhip or dogwhip, while on a stationary train in [[Aberdeen railway station]]; she had mistaken the man for Lloyd George. She was sentenced to ten days' imprisonment and released early following a four-day hunger strike.{{sfn|A. J. R.|1913|p=221}}{{sfn|Purvis|2013a|p=357}} It was the seventh time she had been on hunger strike, and the forty-ninth time she had been force-fed.{{sfn|West|1982|p=179}}