Political Activism At HRR (1913)

As we witnessed at this year’s Boat Race, the rowing sport is not spared from political activism and protests. The 99 year-old photograph above is showing a much milder political activity then the one shown on 7 April this spring. The two upper-class ladies are at the 1913 Henley Royal Regatta carrying around, or maybe even trying to sell, the Suffragette’s paper. The Suffragette movement worked hard and sometimes also aggressive to give women the right to vote.

It was said that the ‘sport-terrorist’ who interrupted and stopped this year’s race between Oxford and Cambridge, actually had the suffragette Emily Davison, who was a militant and violent campaigner, as a heroine. Davison died a couple of days after she on 4 June, 1913, had stepped out trying to grab King George V’s horse at the Epsom Derby.

Here is a short, peaceful film about the Henley Royal in 1921 – in colour!

HENLEY REGATTA 1921