Baroness Thatcher and the Suffragette
Why Emily Davison hid in the chapel of St Mary Undercroft
Much debate this week as to whether or not Baroness Thatcher helped the cause of feminism. What's certain is that her body is to spend its last night in the same Westminster chapel where the Suffragette Emily Davison once hid overnight.

The chapel of St Mary Undercroft, which lies beneath St Stephen's Hall, is where Baroness Thatcher's body will be moved to on Tuesday night, in readiness for its journey to St Paul's Cathedral the next morning. The chapel contains a tiny room, no bigger than a cupboard. These days it just holds switchboards, but on the night of 2nd April 1911 it held Emily Davison.
The suffragette, who two years later would die after throwing herself in front of the King's horse during the Derby, chose this date because it was the night before the census. She was therefore able to record her place of residence as the House of Commons. This despite the fact that as a woman she couldn't stand for Parliament - or even vote.
There's now a brass plaque on the cupboard door recording the event, and Davison's role in gaining women the right to become an MP. In 1959 Margaret Thatcher did just that. It seems fitting that her final night is to be spent just feet from that cupboard.
Latest Blog Posts
At sixes and sevens - where truth becomes cloudy
State Opening of Parliament - the rehearsal
Acting up - why Parliament relies on goats
Archives
- June 2019
- May 2018
- July 2017
- December 2015
- September 2015
- July 2015
- January 2015
- November 2014
- September 2014
- June 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- November 2012
- October 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
Write a comment