He was educated at Eton until he was forced to leave the school in 1857 due to the poor state of his family's finances, caused by the death of his father in October of that year, and his father's business in East India failing.

In December 1863 Sanderson accompanied Lord Wodehouse to Berlin and Copenhagen on his special mission during the Schleswig-Holstein crisis.

Early in his career he crossed paths with Lord Stanley, later 15th Earl of Derby.

On 20 December 1905 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Sanderson, of Armthorpe in the County of York.

He died unmarried at Wimpole Street, London, on 21 March 1923, aged 82, when the barony became extinct.