Amy Sanderson

Amy Sanderson née Reid (1876–1931), was a Scottish suffragette, national executive committee member of the Women's Freedom League, who was imprisoned twice. She was key speaker at the 1912 Hyde Park women's rally, after marching from Edinburgh to London, and, with Charlotte Despard and Teresa Billington-Greig, was a British delegate to the 1908 and 1923 international women's congresses. By the 1881 Census, the Reids were living at 94 Muir Street, Dalziel, Lanarkshire. Amy Reid was one of six siblings, five older than her: Mary W. Reid born 1860, Elizabeth Reid (a shopwoman) born 1862, Andrew Reid (a chemist's assistant) born 1864, Bertha Reid born 1876 and a younger brother James F. Reid born 1876. The family had English boarders: the Horsman family (Charles Horsman, Ellen Horsman -both comedians - and their 13 year old daughter Ellen Maud ), Harry Thomas (also a comedian), and Mary Fortescue described as a 55 year old widow annuitant.

She married James Sanderson, a wireworker journeyman, on 10 August 1901 at Trinity Congregational Church, Glasgow.

Amy Sanderson died in 1931.

Suffrage activism Sanderson joined the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU) in 1906 and was arrested at the 'Women's Parliament' militant protest at the House of Commons in 1907. She started speaking at events in Scotland on behalf of WPSU. In October 1907, she joined the break-away Women's Freedom League (WLF) and served on its national executive committee for three years. She wrote that most of the Scottish branches of WSPU became affiliated to WFL. Sanderson was asked by the headquarters to go urgently to Aberdeen and wrote to Caroline Phillips the local organiser, due to differences in opinion on tactics, and was regarded as a good organiser for new territory for suffrage activism (in Forfar), by WFL leader Theresa Billington-Greig.

In February 1908, Sanderson was arrested a second time and imprisoned for a month in Holloway Prison in London, with others in a small militant group who had accosted Prime Minister H.H. Asquith at his home in Cavendish Square.

In 1908, she went to Dunfermline where she spoke along with Anna Munro, Mrs Donaldson and Mrs Duguid to an audience who were said to be ' a curious mixture of earnest championship, lukewarm support, indifference and hostility'. Referring to the party's duty to working class women, Sanderson said: 'Surely the women who have fought so determinedly during the last four years, who have been reviled and abused, imprisoned and tortured for asking simple justice, have a claim on a party that champions sweated workers, 82 per cent of whom are women.' The 1910 WFL Conference report refers to the active engagement of the provincial and Scottish representatives; Sanderson is pictured with the National Executive Committee and WFL President Mrs Despard at Caxton Hall. Sanderson's speech there was wider than women's suffrage, talking about work opportunities and quoting the police force in Indiana, USA who had female patrol beat officers, a point which was supported by chair, Archdeacon Escreet. She also spoke up for joint male/female administration of all kinds of laws, in the best interest of society, and about the risks of a 'personality' culture.

In March 1912, Sanderson had returned to activism after a period of illness, and spoke at the WFL Conference which sent congratulations to women's organizations in Washington and California on their achievements of votes for women, the previous year.

In October 1912, she was involved in the 'Brown March' from Edinburgh to London, speaking to the group passing through York, where they had gathered signatures from 36 out of 48 councillors to a petition for votes for women. Sanderson then joined the women's groups from all over the country gathering in their thousands in Hyde Park, where she was one of the leading speakers at the mass rally.

A decade after founding of WFL, the organisation looked back at its troubled beginnings as a split from WSPU and thanked its first executive committee.

International delegate In May 1923, Sanderson was again a delegate at the Congress of the International Suffrage Alliance this time in Rome, Italy where women had no voting rights at all. The Congress was opened by Mussolini, whom she reported to be so impressed by the scope of the international event and the women's procession that he 'promised, if he is in power next year, to give the municipal vote to the women of Italy' .' The brief report of her talk to the Edinburgh Branch of WFL commented 'Even a Dictator is not sure of himself in these days, apparently.' and said Sanderson was a 'valuable' addition to the branch.

Images Sanderson was photographed in prison by the police (image is in the Museum of London) and her 1907 posed photograph, wearing the Holloway brooch was used in publicity postcards for WSPU. (Note: one of these cards was advertised for sale in 2017 for £130+VAT, and by auctioneers Rogers Jones in 2019, for an estimated £100–£160).