240747 L/Cpl. Charles Richard Saunders British Army Royal Army Medical Corps My paternal grandfather Charles Saunders signed up with the Royal Marine Light Infantry in August 1915 adding a year to his age serving as a Marine aboard HMS Havelock until September 1917. He then went to France as part of the Royal Naval Division. He saw action during February and March 1918 on the front line near Havrincourt Wood where he was wounded (shot and bayonetted) and captured. He then spent the rest of 1918 as a POW. He was honourably discharged on compassionate grounds in November 1919.
During WW2 he served in the RASC and was then transferred to the RAMC driving an ambulance. He ended up at Dunkirk in 1940. Unfortunately the ambulance was hit and he was seriously injured with a broken back. He was then captured and hospitalized and, by his own account, owed his life to superb German surgeons who repaired his vertebrae. Afterwards he spent the rest of WW2 as a POW, finally ending up in Berlin as it fell then returning to England. Resumed his job as a lorry driver and had a good peaceful life until dying at the grand age of 98 - a full life!
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