{{Short description|British suffragette and humanist}} {{Use British English|date=March 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Beatrice Sanders | image = Suffragette Beatrice Sanders.jpg | caption = From The Suffragette, 20 June 1913 | birth_name = Beatrice Helen Martin | birth_date = 1874 | death_date = 29 November 1932 | occupation = Suffragette | organisation = Women's Social and Political Union, Union of Ethical Societies, Fabian Society | spouse = William Stephen Sanders }}
'''Beatrice Helen Sanders''' (1874 – 29 November 1932) was a British suffragette and humanist,<ref>{{Cite web|title=Heroines of freethought: women of the early humanist movement|url=https://humanism.org.uk/2020/11/20/heroines-of-freethought-women-of-the-early-humanist-movement/|access-date=2020-11-24|website=Humanists UK|language=en}}</ref> who served as financial secretary of the Women's Social and Political Union from 1904 until 1914.<ref name="timesobit" />
== Life == Born Beatrice Helen Martin, her mother was a hairdresser<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes |last=Atkinson |first=Diane |publisher=Bloomsbury |year=2018 |isbn=9781408844045 |location=London |pages=50, 396 |oclc=1016848621}}</ref> and she worked as an assistant in her fathers' tobacconist shop before marrying a progressive social politician,<ref name=":0" /> William Stephen Sanders.<ref>{{cite news |title=Suffragist salaries |work=The Times |date=12 June 1913}}</ref> A keen women's suffrage activist, from 1904 until 1914, she was employed, at a salary of £3 a week,<ref name=":0" /> as the financial secretary of the Women's Social and Political Union.<ref name="timesobit">{{cite news |title=Mrs Sanders |work=The Times |date=1 December 1932}}</ref> Annie Kenney recalled in her memoirs<ref>{{Cite book|title=Memories of a Militant|last=Kenney|first=Annie|publisher=Edward Arnold|year=1924|pages=82–3|author-link=Annie Kenney}}</ref> Sanders' strong control of members' expenses, as they would be expected to correct errors or deficits "out of our own pocket".<ref name=":0" />
Sanders worked closely with Sylvia Pankhurst, and was imprisoned for her activities on multiple occasions.<ref>{{cite news |title=[untitled article] |work=The Manchester Guardian |date=2 December 1932}}</ref> 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 1910. By 1913, as financial secretary of the Women's Social and Political Union, she was arrested with Harriet Kerr<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4151734|title=DISTURBANCES: Harriet R. Kerr, Suffragette. Released under Prisoners (Temporary...|date=1913}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{cite news|title=Seizure of suffragette headquarters|date=1 May 1913|work=The Times}}</ref> She went on hunger strike in Lewes prison 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.<ref name="timesobit" />[[File:The Suffragette front page.jpg|thumb|Report of the arrests of suffragettes Harriet Kerr and Sanders, from the collection of the LSE Library]]
Sanders' name appears on the 'Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners'.<ref>{{Cite web |last=National Archives |date= |title=Roll of Honour of Suffragette Prisoners 1905-1914, Ref 7LAC/2 |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/ee5a777f-1d7c-416b-a249-c7cb64fcc0a8 |access-date=17 March 2022 |website=The National Archives UKwww.nationalarchives.gov.uk}}</ref> She was also given a Hunger Strike Medal 'for Valour' by the WSPU.{{cn|date=July 2023}} [[File:Suffragettes Harriet Kerr and Beatrice Sanders.jpg|thumb|Harriet Kerr and Sanders at the offices of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), from ''The Suffragette'', 3 October 1913]] Sanders and her husband were longstanding members of the Fabian Society and the West London Ethical Society (part of the Union of Ethical Societies, now Humanists UK). During the 1920s Beatrice served as chair of the Fabian Women's Group.<ref name="obit">{{cite news |title=Obituary |work=Fabian News |date=January 1933}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Crawford |first=Elizabeth |author-link=Elizabeth Crawford (historian) |title=The women's suffrage movement : a reference guide, 1866-1928 |date=1999 |publisher=UCL Press |isbn=1-84142-031-X |location=London |oclc=59376897}}</ref> For a period when her husband was working in Geneva, she became an organiser in the Swiss women's movement.<ref name="timesobit" />
Beatrice Sanders died on 29 November 1932 at the age of 58.<ref name="timesobit" /> ==References== <references /> {{Authority control}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanders, Beatrice}} Category:1874 births Category:1932 deaths Category:English suffragettes Category:English humanists Category:Members of the Fabian Society Category:Women's Social and Political Union Category:Place of birth missing