Herbert Saunderson was born in Bedfordshire, England, where he trained as a blacksmith and subsequently established himself as an agent for the Canadian Massey-Harris company. In the late 1800s Saunderson began to build a range of his own equipment including windmills, pumps and weed clearing machinery, and around the turn of the century he developed a self-propelled vehicle. Saunderson first tractor appeared in 1904 from the Elstow Works near Bedford - this was a two-wheeled machine that was intended to be coupled to various implements. The 1908 Saunderson catalogue lists three models of "Universal Motor", the most of successful of which was the the Model A, a three-wheeled 45-50 hp tractor with all-wheel drive that was exported as far afield as Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The next decade saw the company name change to Saunderson & Gifkins and then Saunderson & Mills, as a series of partners provided Saunderson with much-needed financial support. A new range of tractors was also introduced, this time with the more conventional four-wheeled configuration: the smallest was the Model L, with a single-cylinder air-cooled engine, while the largest was the Model V with a four-cylinder power unit developing around 50 hp. However, it was the Model G that was to prove Saunderson's most successful and long-lived tractor - this was produced in various incarnations from around 1913 right up to the mid 1920s. The first Model G's had the operator's seat at the side of the tractor with a large rear-mounted radiator for cooling; the seat was later moved to the front of the tractor, but the final and best-known incarnation saw the seat moved to the rear and the radiator up front. The Model G was produced in this form from about 1916, and gained added publicity when King George V chose to purchase one for use on his Sandringham estate. The tractor featured a twin-cylinder vertical engine of Saunderson's own design, which gave around 25 hp and proved very reliable. The Saunderson Tractor & Implement Co., as it was now called, went on to become the largest tractor manufacturer in Britain and Saunderson Model G tractors were even assembled in France for a while under the "SCEMIA" name. Nevertheless, the emergence of the Fordson tractor and problems with the export market following the First World War caused problems for Saunderson, and the Model G began to look rather dated; a 12 hp "Light" tractor with V-twin engine was introduced in 1923, but met with little success. The following year, Herbert Saunderson took the decision to sell his Saunderson tractor business to Crossleys of Manchester, who marketed the Model G with minor changes for a few more years.

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