Listed on the School Roll of Honour as “Saunders, J. 3rd Suffolk Inf.” And “J Saunders on the RBL Roll, Hector John Saunders was born on 15th March 1893 in Great Tey, Essex to Nathan Leonard Saunders and Esther Saunders (née Smith). By 1901 the family were living in The Street next to the Almshouses (near the British legion club today). Hector was 8 years old and would, therefore, have attended the village school. In 1911 Hector (now known as just John) was a farm labourer living at home with his parents.
There is no service record to confirm his war involvement but a medal index card tells us that Hector J Saunders (a fairly unusual name) was Private 16923 in the Suffolk Regiment and went to France on 4th May 1915. He was transferred to the Royal Army Service Corps as ET/48695, on 25th July 1917 and at the time was an Acting Corporal with the 1st Suffolk (He re-enlisted in the RASC on 10th July 1919 and the numbers T/7228 and R/390970 appear on his medal card presumably in relation to this extra service). His service number in the Suffolk indicates that he enlisted early in the war but his transfer to the ASC suggest that he was wounded or incapacitated enough to take him from the front line. No further information has been found about Hectors life after the war. However, there was a death of John H Saunders in 1937 – registered in the Gipping District – who was born about 1893.
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