Sarah Page

Sarah Page ( Saunders; 26 August 1863 – 20 January 1950), also known as Sarah Saunders Page, was a New Zealand teacher, feminist, prohibitionist, socialist, social reformer, and politician.

Early life and family Sarah Saunders was born in Waimea South, Nelson, New Zealand in 1863. She was one of ten children of Rhoda Saunders (née Flower) and Alfred Saunders, a radical politician, and grew up surrounded by Quakers. Sarah McMurray, a woodcarver and craftswoman, was Sarah Page's cousin through her mother's sister, Susannah Silcock (née Flower).

In 1896, she married Samuel Page, who was a science demonstrator at Canterbury Museum and like herself a Quaker. They were to have two sons, including Robert Page.

Standing for the Labour Party, she failed to get elected to the Christchurch City Council in the 1919 local elections. The three candidates elected in the St Albans ward, which included John Beanland and Ernest Andrews, were all from the right-leaning Citizens Association. Page was elected to the North Canterbury Hospital Board in 1922. When the Labour Party developed into a strong party in the 1920s, Page's extreme left views became less accepted and her influence faded. She bequeathed £2,000 to the Canterbury University College's chemistry department where her husband had been employed.