The other day a friend of mine broke two ribs when, in his wife's words, he served as the airbag when his horse fell on a slippery road. (The horse is fine.)
And this reminded me of a sad event that happened at the Epsom Downs Racecourse in England in 1913. At that time women were fighting for the right to vote in England, and the "suffragettes," as they were called, were becoming increasingly militant. One of them, Emily Wilding Davison, went to the Epsom Derby on June 4. Her exact motive is unclear. Some think she may have wanted to attach a suffragette flag to the bridle of King George V's horse, Anmer (as impractical as that sounds). Others think she wanted to become a martyr for the cause (even though she bought a round-trip train ticket to the race).
Carrying her banner, she walked out onto the track in front of Anmer and, as will happen when you step in front of a galloping horse, was trampled and fatally injured. The jockey, Herbert Jones, suffered a mild concussion but was haunted by the event the rest of his days. Anmer went on to race again.
Ironically, apparently Miss Davison's actions damaged the suffragette cause, providing the men who ruled the country with another argument against granting women the vote: if a well-educated woman like her could perform such an act, they feared, what would less-educated women do?
In 1918, women in England were finally permitted to vote -- as long as they were over 30, had their own household, were married to the head of a household, or had a college degree. The right to vote was not extended to all women over 21 until 1928.
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