{{Short description|English political activist (1841–1908)}} {{Use British English|date=May 2026}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Sarah Amos | image = Sarah Amos.png | caption = Amos in 1895 | birth_name = Sarah Maclardie Bunting | birth_date = {{Birth date|1841|03|22|df=y}} | birth_place = Ratcliffe, near Manchester, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1908|01|21|1841|03|22|df=y}} | death_place = Cairo, Egypt | occupation = {{Hlist|Political activist|superintendent}} | spouse = {{Marriage|Sheldon Amos|1870|1886|end=d.}} | children = {{Plainlist| * Maurice Amos * Bonté Elgood }} | relatives = {{Plainlist| * Percy Bunting (brother) * Jabez Bunting (grandfather) }} }} '''Sarah Maclardie Amos''' ({{Nee|'''Bunting'''}}; 22 March 1841 – 21 January 1908) was an English political activist and superintendent of the Working Women's College in Queen Square, London. She was involved in Liberal Nonconformist politics, campaigns against the Contagious Diseases Acts, and the movement to secure women's eligibility for local government office.
== Biography == Amos was born Sarah Maclardie Bunting at Ratcliffe, near Manchester, in 1840. She was the daughter of Thomas Percival Bunting, a solicitor and the third son of Jabez Bunting, and Eliza Bunting ({{Nee|Bealey}}). She had three siblings: Mary, Eliza, and Percy, who later edited the ''Contemporary Review''. In 1865, Amos became superintendent of the Working Women's College in Queen Square, London.<ref name="Levine 2004">{{Cite ODNB|title=Amos [née Bunting], Sarah Maclardie (1840/41–1908), political activist|chapter=Amos [née Bunting], Sarah Maclardie (1841–1908), political activist|year=2004|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-50715|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/50715|last1=Levine|first1=Philippa|isbn=9780198614128}}</ref> The college had been founded in 1864 by Elizabeth Malleson to provide education for working women.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/institutions/working_womens_college.htm|title=Working Women's College|website=UCL Bloomsbury Project|language=en-GB|access-date=2017-11-09|date=2011-04-13|last=Colville|first=Deborah|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241229055431/http://www.ucl.ac.uk/bloomsbury-project/institutions/working_womens_college.htm|archive-date=2024-12-29|url-status=dead}}</ref>
Amos married Sheldon Amos in 1870. He was a professor of law at University College London. Although the family had a secure income, they lived in the poorer district near Red Lion Square before moving to New Barnet. Their son, Maurice Amos, was born in 1872, and their daughter, Bonté, was born in 1874.<ref name="Levine 2004" />
Sarah and Sheldon Amos were active in Liberal Nonconformist politics and in movements concerned with the position of women. They opposed legislation that further criminalised prostitutes and campaigned against the Contagious Diseases Acts.<ref name="Levine 2004" />
In 1880, the Amos family left Britain for Australia in the hope of improving Sheldon's health. They disliked Australia and later stopped in Egypt while intending to return to England. Sheldon was offered work assisting Lord Dufferin with legal matters, and the family remained in Egypt until his death in 1886.<ref>{{Cite ODNB|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-30403|title=Amos, Sir (Percy) Maurice Maclardie Sheldon (1872–1940), judge|year=2004|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/30403|last1=Legg|first1=Marie-Louise|last2=Legg|first2=Thomas S.}}</ref>
In November 1888, Amos hosted the first meeting of the Society for Promoting the Return of Women as County Councillors at her home. The society later became the Women's Local Government Society. The meeting included several of her relatives and was led by Annie Leigh Browne, with discussion of suitable women candidates for election.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Body-Gendrot|author2=Carré|title=A City of One's Own: Blurring the Boundaries Between Private and Public|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1GoDQAAQBAJ|date=2016-12-05|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-351-96271-1|first=Sophie|author-link=Sophie Body-Gendrot|first2=Jacques|page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=d1GoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT267 267]}}</ref>
On the formation of the Women's Vegetarian Union in 1895, Amos served as a vice-president.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Gregory |first=James Richard Thomas Elliott |title=The Vegetarian Movement in Britain c.1840–1901: A Study of Its Development, Personnel and Wider Connections |date=May 2002 |access-date= |degree=PhD |publisher=University of Southampton |url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467032/2/886115_v.2.pdf |language=en |pages= |chapter=Appendix F: Officers and Members of the Women's Vegetarian Union |volume=2 |author-link=James Gregory (historian) |chapter-url=https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/467032/2/886115_v.2.pdf#page=58}}</ref>
Amos died in Cairo on 21 January 1908, while staying with her son.<ref name="Levine 2004" />
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Amos, Sarah}} Category:1840 births Category:1908 deaths Category:19th-century English educators Category:19th-century English women educators Category:20th-century English educators Category:20th-century English women educators Category:Activists from Manchester Category:English women educators Category:English women's rights activists Category:English feminists Category:English suffragists Category:English women activists Category:People associated with the Women's Vegetarian Union Category:English vegetarianism activists