The suffragette who died 100 years ago after running out in front of the King’s horse at the Epsom Derby did not intend to commit suicide, according to a fresh examination of film footage of the fateful event in a documentary by racing presenter Clare Balding.

Balding presented Secrets of a Suffragette, on Sunday (May 26), which explored the life of Emily Davison, who stepped onto the path of the horse, Anmer, on June 4, 1913, and died from her injuries four days later at the Old Cottage Hospital, in Alexandra Road, Epsom.

A member of the Women’s Social and Political Union, founded by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1903 to demand votes for women, Davison became increasingly militant in the suffragettes' struggle and had already been jailed nine times and force-fed on 49 occasions, before ducking under the Tattenham Corner rails and running onto Epsom Downs Racecourse - a moment which was captured by three newsreel cameras. 

In the documetary, viewers saw Balding confronting the debate which continues to surround Davison’s intentions - as to whether the incident was a "potential suicide or the act of an accidental martyr".

With a team of forensic experts analysing the specially restored film footage frame-by-frame, Balding was astonished to find that Davison did not appear to be pulling Anmer down, but was potentially reaching up to attach a suffragette scarf to its bridle.

Viewing the footage, she said: "You can see she’s got something in her hands, she’s lifting it up.

"It’s hard to tell what it is but she’s definitely trying to present it.  She was caught at the one angle that brought the horse down and gave her injuries that were fatal."

Balding, whose father is Epsom Derby-winning horse trainer Ian Balding, said it had been an "exciting adventure" discovering more about "a radicalised woman with nothing to lose, championing a cause with everything to gain".

She said: "Emily Davison’s death provoked a complex reaction that is still felt today.

"I grew up in a racing world, in a family that was obsessed with the Derby, for whom it was sacrosanct. 

"In my childhood, Emily Davison was a madwoman who had thrown herself under the King’s horse, who had tried to disrupt the greatest flat race of them all.

"It has been an exciting adventure to discover more about her and it’s one of the most remarkable things I have ever seen."

Balding said Davison’s protest was a "hugely significant moment in history which absolutely sums up the desperation of women in this country who wanted the vote".

She added: "They just wanted democracy, what you and I now take for granted and what many of us don’t bother to do when it comes to election time".

But, the sports presenter found that not everybody agreed with Davison’s daring Derby act.

One letter of hate mail written to Davison, as she lay dying, signed from ‘an Englishman’, said: "I am glad to hear you are in hospital.

"I hope you suffer torture and tears until you die, you idiot.

"I consider you are a person unworthy of existence in this world and would like the opportunity of starving and beating you to a pulp. 

"Why don’t your people find an asylum for you?"

A specially commissioned Suffragette flag, will be flown in Epsom Market on Saturday, June 1, Derby Day, consisting of the movement’s three colours - purple, symbolising dignity; white, representing purity; and green, the colour of hope.

The flag has been presented by Bourne Hall and the costs are to be recouped through the sale of a special suffragette tea towel which is being sold alongside the museum’s Dying for the Vote exhibition.

Spokesmen for Surrey Police and Epsom Downs Racecourse confirmed that no extra security will be in place at Saturday’s 234th Epsom Derby, contrary to national media reports earlier in the year that there would be a greater police presence due to the potential for Suffragette protests at the event.

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