Margaret Davidson (suffragist)

Davidson was born on 18 August 1879. Both of her parents and two of her mother's sisters were teachers. Davidson and her younger sister attended St. Andrew's University until 1902, and she became a Modern Languages teacher, first in Dornoch's Burgh School, Schoolhill. She later moved with the institution to the new Dornoch Academy in 1913 (now the primary school).[1]

Davidson became the first Secretary of the Dornoch branch of National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies (NUWSS) in 1912. The branch was visited by leaders of the Scottish Federation of National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in 1913;[2] and it grew to over 60 members. Members also protested during the 1911 Census, by not participating in the enumeration of members of the households, because they were unable to vote.

Dornoch also attracted the attention of the more militant Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) as an area famous for its links golf courses, especially the Royal Dornoch Golf Club, which was in the 1910s a male-only club. In 1912 the suffragettes Lilias Mitchell and Elsie Howey attacked the Prime Minister Asquith and Home Secretary Reginald McKenna on this course. The following year, a local suffragette, Miss Gibson, who lived at a house near the course called 'Briarfield', again approached the Prime Minister when he was out on this course and knocked off his hat. She was escorted away by Mr. Ryle, Club Captain and Mr. McKenna reportedly still smiling.[5]

In May 1915 Davidson gave up her teaching job to volunteer as an orderly then as a nurse to the wounded at the battlefront, in the Scottish Women's Hospital, at Royaumont Hospital in France.[3] These hospitals were founded by Dr. Elsie Inglis, a fellow suffragist, with financial support from NUWSS members and from private sources. Davidson served there 'under the thunder and boom of the great guns'[6] continuously until 29 August 1917.[7]

Nurse Davidson is listed on the First World War Roll of Honour, placed in the Dornoch Cathedral entrance porch.[8]

1931 Dornoch Guides

After the war Davidson returned to her teaching career in Dornoch, eventually promoted to Head of Subject (Modern Languages).

Davidson and her friend Amaryllis Edith Hacon later took part in a 1928 tercentary Dornoch Pageant marking the granting of the Royal Charter to the Burgh of Dornoch by Charles I in 1628.[9][10]

Davidson and Amaryllis Edith Hacon both became Girl Guides leaders in the town in 1931.[4] Davidson continued to act as an invigilator for examinations at her former school, for many years after retiring in 1945.[11] She also continued to be active in the local community raising funds for wounded soldiers and hospitals.

Davidson died in 1978 aged 98.[4][1]

Davidson lived in a house called 'Oversteps',[2] which is now a care home. [12] Oversteps was the home a fellow suffragist, a young widow Amaryllis Edith Hacon who had been a society 'hostess' and friend of artists Toulouse Lautrec and Charles Condor. Mrs Hacon's earlier circle included Arthur Symons, author, whose book 'The Life of Lucy Newcombe' was allegedly based on her early life, and she know Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley.[4] (Hacon's home was also where Prime Minister H. H. Asquith resided on his annual holidays in Scotland in 1912[13].)

Amaryllis Edith Hacon had also volunteered to nurse injured soldiers near the front in France during World War One. Davidson was later a witness at Hacon's second marriage to a Canadian soldier, whom they had met whilst serving in France, Wiliam Robichaud in 1918.[4] While Davidson is listed on First World War Roll of Honour, as a Roman Catholic Hacon is not listed on the brass plaque.[4]

• Mapping Memorials to Women in Scotland https://womenofscotland.org.uk/keywords/teacher?page=1