Emily Davison and Amner

Right here in Blackheath, where elegant Victorian houses line quiet streets, a woman was born who would shake the British establishment to its core. Emily Wilding Davison arrived in 1872 at Roxburgh House on Vanbrugh Park West. She was brilliant, earning first-class honors in English at Oxford, yet the university refused her a degree simply because she was a woman. This injustice fueled her determination. In 1906, she joined the Women's Social and Political Union, the militant campaign fighting for women's right to vote.

Emily became one of their most fearless activists. She was arrested 9 times and force-fed 49 times during hunger strikes in prison. She set postboxes ablaze, hurled stones at government ministers, and even hid three times inside the Palace of Westminster to eavesdrop on parliamentary debates. On 4 June 1913, she attended the Epsom Derby with two suffragette flags pinned inside her coat. As the horses thundered around Tattenham Corner, she stepped onto the track and collided with Anmer, King George V's horse. Forensic analysis of the film footage suggests she was attempting to attach a flag to the horse as a protest. She died four days later from a fractured skull. Her funeral brought 50,000 people onto the streets, with 5,000 suffragettes marching from Victoria Station to King's Cross. Women gained the vote in 1918.