A FAMILY reunion will have extra significance as relatives of Suffragette Emily Wilding Davison come together in her honour.
Northumberland will be paying tribute to the campaigner 100 years after she was laid to rest in St Mary’s Churchyard, Morpeth, following her fatal Derby day protest.
And while many of her family members, including Davisons, Caisleys, Biltons, Andersons, Woods and Wilkinsons, still live in the area, more will be jetting in.
They include a contingent of de Baeckers from France, who are relatives of Emily’s sister Letitia, and the most senior member of the Davison clan, Geoffrey Davison, who has travelled more than 10,000 miles from his home in New South Wales, Australia, to lead the tributes to his great aunt.
“It is going to be quite a family reunion and I am looking forward to meeting some for the very first time, including the de Baeckers,” he said.
“What is being done by so many people and organisations to mark this milestone in Emily’s story is almost beyond words. The whole family is going to be so proud of Emily.”
Earlier this week Mr Davison travelled to Epsom to see a new plaque at Tattenham Corner, where Emily was fatally injured attempting to pin the Suffragette colours to the King’s horse, and he is looking forward to catching up with Maureen Howes, who has told Emily’s story using family archives.
“For a long time we did not open up about our side of the Emily story, but I believe we are now all able to do so and in some ways we feel released from the perceived image that resulted from the way the publicity and propaganda was driven for so many years after Epsom,” he said.
“This weekend we will remember Emily with pride for the right reasons.”