Genealogy of Richard, Helen and Jonathan Saunders:Information about Alexander Douglas Saunders
Alexander Douglas Saunders (b. 18 Apr 1910, d. 21 Jun 1987)
Notes for Alexander Douglas Saunders:
Biographical Details
Born Shrewsbury(?) 1910 to Margaret and Harry Saunders, but brought up from a baby by his grandparents Elizabeth and Joseph in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.
Alec worked as a butcher in Cirencester after leaving school, supporting his grandmother who was ill with and eventually died of cancer. After her death, he joined the Grenadier Guards at the recruiting office in Bristol (claiming to be a year older than he actually was). He served in the Guards for three years.
On leaving the Grenadiers, Alec joined the civilian police, a job that took him to Salisbury. Not knowing his parents and brothers, Alec led a fairly rootless existence through the 1930's until the outbreak of the Second World War. Hoping to join the RAF, he was disappointed to find that his membership of the Army Reserve precluded him from becoming a pilot, and he rejoined the Guards. Soon after, he was selected to join one of the first internal security units (Military Police) to be formed. He was posted to the Isle of Man (internees were being assembled in prison camps there), where he met Eileen Teare.
They kept in touch through the War, as Alec was posted in the Middle East (Egypt, Iraq, and USSR's southern borders). When the War ended, Alec returned to the police in Salisbury, and was joined there by Eileen in March 1946. They were married in Cirencester Church.
Alec spent the best part of two years hospitalised and isolated with TB at the end of the 1940's, missing the first years of his sons' lives. On recovery, he rejoined the police. By chance in 1960, while working in the immigration office in Salisbury, he met his youngest brother Ken for the first time, and through Ken met the other two brothers he had never known.
On retirement from the police in the late 1960's, Alec worked for the Southern Evening Echo.
Alec died on 21/7/87. He is buried with his grandparents in Cirencester Cemetery, Victoria Road, Cirencester. (Plot 3, grave 84).
More About Alexander Douglas Saunders:
Burial: Unknown, Cirencester Cemetery, Victoria Road, Cirencester. (Plot 3, grave 84).
More About Alexander Douglas Saunders and Eileen Elizabeth Teare:
Private-Begin: Private
Children of Alexander Douglas Saunders and Eileen Elizabeth Teare are: