The Vote Road Trip Day 15 and 16 Morpeth and Newcastle-Upon-Tyne

Emily Wilding Davison

8/11 The statue of Emily Wilding Davison in Morpeth, a lovely village near the northeast coast of England, is located in a gorgeous park. We visited on a cold rainy day on our way to our next overnight in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, where we are now. It is still raining and in the 60s. (Click on a picture to enlarge it.)

“Northumberland’s Lawless Lassie/Emily Wilding Davison 1872-1913/Suffragette” read the headline on an informative illustrated sign. Davison joined WSPU in 1906 and “fought tirelessly for women’s rights in particular the right to vote.” Arrest

8/12 Saturday & Sunday in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, in the northeast of England on the north bank of the River Tyne, another hotbed of suffragettes such as Kathleen Brown, whose mother and sister were involved in the great cause. In July 1909, Brown was arrested for throwing stones in London and sentenced to seven days in solitary confinement in Holloway Prison where she undertook a hunger strike and was one of the first women to be force fed. The imprisonment, hunger strikes, and force feeding of American suffragists began in 1917. It was so painful to write about that in my book, The Vote: Women’s Fierce Fight. Kathleen Brown was released on July 19 and returned by train to Newcastle where she was greeted by suffragettes and a band. A procession of carriages filled with suffragettes and decorated in purple, white, and green went to the Turk’s Head Hotel for a celebratory tea. On March 8, 2017, a blue plaque was placed at the former site of Turk’s Head. Although it was raining and cold and we both have colds, Linda and I set off to find it, and, as you see, we did. It read: “Former Turk’s Head

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