Beatrice Sanders

Beatrice Helen Sanders (1874 – 29 November 1932) was a British suffragette.

Born Beatrice Martin, her mother was a hairdresser[1] and she worked as an assistant in her fathers' tobacconist shop before marrying a progressive social politician,[1] William Stephen Sanders.[2] A keen women's suffrage activist, from 1904 until 1914, she was employed, at a salary of £3 a week,[1] as the financial secretary of the Women's Social and Political Union.[3] Annie Kenney recalled in her memoirs[4] Sanders strong control of members' expenses, as they would be expected to correct errors or deficits "out of our own pocket".[1]

Sanders worked closely with Sylvia Pankhurst, and was imprisoned for her activities on multiple occasions.[5] On one occasion, she was sentenced to fourteen months for taking part in the events at the House of Commons in February 1907, and for a month for throwing stones on Black Friday in November 2010. By 1913, as financial secretary of the Women's Social and Political Union, she was arrested with Harriet Kerr after a struggle with police which was front-page news in The Suffragette, when the premises at Clement's Inn was raided, the sentence was fifteen days.[1][6] She went on hunger strike and was temporarily released under the terms of the Cat and Mouse Act, and although her sentence was never annulled, she was not re-arrested.[3]

Sanders was given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by WSPU.

Sanders and her husband were longstanding members of the Fabian Society, and during the 1920s served as chair of the Fabian Women's Group.[7] For a period when her husband was working in Geneva, she became an organiser in the Swiss women's movement.[3]

References
  1. Diane, Atkinson (2018). Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes. London: Bloomsbury. pp. 50, 396. ISBN 9781408844045. OCLC 1016848621.
  2. "Suffragist salaries". The Times. 12 June 1913.
  3. "Mrs Sanders". The Times. 1 December 1932.
  4. Kenney, Annie (1924). Memories of a Militant. Edward Arnold. pp. 82–3.
  5. "[untitled article]". Manchester Guardian. 2 December 1932.
  6. "Seizure of suffragette headquarters". The Times. 1 May 1913.
  7. "Obituary". Fabian News. January 1933.
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