Amy Sanderson
Amy Sanderson | |
|---|---|
| Born | Amy Reid 1876 |
| Organisation(s) | Women's Freedom League and Women's Social and Political Union and delegate to 1923 International Alliance of Women |
| Known for | suffragette activism |
| Relatives | one of six siblings |
| Awards | Holloway brooch |
Amy Sanderson neé Reid (born circa 1875–6), was a Scottish suffragette, executive member of the Women's Freedom League, was imprisoned twice, and was a key speaker at the 1912 Hyde Park women's rally, after marching from Edinburgh to London,[1] and a delegate to the1923 international congress.[2]
Family life
Born Amy Reid in 1876 in Bellshill, North Lanarkshire to father James Reid, born 1838, a spirits cellarsman (or hotel keeper) from Kincardine, Perthshire and mother Janet Reid neé Kerr also born 1838 from Glasgow. 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 chemists 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 13 year old child Ellen Maud Horsman) and Harry Thomas also a comedian, and Mary Fortescue described as a 55 year old widow annuitant.[3]
She married James Sanderson, a wireworker journeyman on 10 August 1901 at Trinity Congregational Church, Glasgow.[4]
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, Sanderson joined the break-away Women's Freedom League (WLF) and served on its executive committee for three years,[5] speaking at events across the country. 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.[6]
In February 1908, Sanderson was arrested a second time and imprisoned for a month in Holloway Prison in London, with a small militant group who accosted Prime Minister H.H. Asquith at his home in Cavendish Square.[1] Sanderson was given a Holloway brooch designed by Sylvia Pankhurst for being imprisoned for the cause of women's votes.[7]
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In 1908, she went to Dunfermline where she spoke along with Anna Munro, Mrs Donaldson and Mrs Duguid to an audience who was said to be 'most sympathetic and attentive, expressing entire approval of the militant tactics.'[8] And at Kilmarnock and in the Prince of Wales Halls, a large venue in Glasgow, where she was introduced by Miss Husband of Dundee, Sanderson (and again Anna Munro) shared some of the details of their prison experiences. Sanderson emphasised the need for prison reform as something women should vote for (once they had won the vote). She also shared part of a hymn the women had sung in the prison:
'The tall trees in the greenwood,
The meadows where we play,
The rushes by the water,
We gather every day,
In Holloway!'[8]
In 1909, Sanderson was convening votes for women meetings in Yorkshire and elsewhere ,[7] including in Forfar, where she lived for a time.[9] Sanderson visited Stonehaven with Anna Munro and said it was a 'hotbed of Liberalism'.[10] Sanderson also wrote articles in the WFL newspaper The Vote,[11] for example in 1910, strongly criticising the Labour Party before the next election, for 'a curious mixture of earnest championship, lukewarm support, indifference and hostility', referring to party's duty to the working class women:
'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.'[12]
In March 1912, Sanderson 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 the previous year.[13] In October 1912, Sanderson was in the 'Brown march' from Edinburgh to London joining women from all over the country to gather in their thousands in Hyde Park, where she was one of the leading speakers at the rally.[14] [1]
When World War One began, the suffragette prisoners, including Sanderson were pardoned by the British government in return for stopping their militancy.[15]
International delegate
In May 1923, Sanderson was a delegate at the Congress of the International Suffrage Alliance 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 on this event to the Edinburgh Branch of WFL commented 'Even a Dictator is not sure of himself in these days, apparently.' Sanderson was considered a 'valuable' addition to the branch.[2]
Images
Sanderson was photographed in prison by the police (image in the Museum of London) [16] and a 1907 posed photograph of her wearing the Holloway brooch was used in publicity postcards for WSPU.[7]
(Note: one of these cards was put up for sale in 2017 for £130+VAT,[7] and by auctioneers Rogers Jones in 2019, for £100–£160).
See also
Feminism in the United Kingdom
List of suffragists and suffragettes
List of women's rights activists
List of women's rights organizations
Women's suffrage organizations
References
- ^ a b c "Mrs Amy Sanderson / Database - Women's Suffrage Resources". www.suffrageresources.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
- ^ a b Spriggs, W.M. (14 September 1923). "Branch Note - Edinburgh". The Vote. p. 295.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Census Returns 1881". Scotland's People. 1881. 639/ 4/ 39 Dalziel Lanark. Retrieved 4 February 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Statutory Register of Marriages". Scotland's People. 1901. 644/9 452. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ The biographical dictionary of Scottish women : from the earliest times to 2004. Ewan, Elizabeth., Innes, Sue., Reynolds, Sian. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 2006. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-7486-2660-1. OCLC 367680960.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ "Letter from Amy Sanderson to Caroline Phillips". emuseum.aberdeencity.gov.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-04.
- ^ a b c d "Collecting Suffrage: Mrs Amy Sanderson, Scottish Speaker For The Women's Freedom League". Woman and her Sphere. 2020-09-18. Retrieved 2021-02-03.
- ^ a b M., A. (19 March 1908). "Scottish Notes". The Vote. p. 444.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Browne, Sarah F. (2007). Making the Vote Count: The Arbroath Women Citizens' Association, 1931-1945. Abertay Historical Society. p. 1823. ISBN 978-0-900019-45-6.
- ^ Leneman, Leah (1995). A guid cause : the women's suffrage movement in Scotland. Edinburgh: Mercat Press. pp. 60, 269. ISBN 1-873644-48-5. OCLC 34146764.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) - ^ Feminism and the periodical press, 1900-1918. Delap, Lucy., DiCenzo, Maria., Ryan, Leila. London: Routledge. 2006. pp. 130, 258. ISBN 0-415-32025-9. OCLC 63693436.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Sanderson, Amy (26 March 1910). "The Labour Party and Votes for Women". The Vote. p. 258.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "conference". The Vote. 3 February 1912. p. 176.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Lethbridge, Lucy (2 February 2018). "The women's march: how the Suffragettes changed Britain". Financial Times. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ SUFFRAGETTES: Amnesty of August 1914: index of people arrested, 1906-1914. The official... National Archives. 1914–1935.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link) CS1 maint: date format (link) - ^ "Museum of London | Free museum in London". collections.museumoflondon.org.uk. Retrieved 2021-02-03.