Percy Saunders
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| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Percival Kitchener Saunders[1] | ||
| Date of birth | 9 July 1916 | ||
| Place of birth | Newhaven, England | ||
| Date of death | 2–3 March 1942 (aged 25)[2] | ||
| Place of death | SS Rooseboom, Indian Ocean | ||
| Position(s) | Inside forward | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| –1936 | Newhaven | ||
| 1936–1939 | Sunderland | 20 | (6) |
| 1939 | Brentford | 0 | (0) |
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Percival Kitchener Saunders (9 July 1916 – 2–3 March 1942) was an English professional footballer who played in the Football League for Sunderland and Brentford as an inside forward.[1][3]
Saunders was a sergeant in the 18th Divisional Workshops, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, during the Second World War.[2] He served in the Far East and in late February 1942, shortly before the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, he was evacuated from Emmahaven on the SS Rooseboom.[4] The ship was headed for Bombay when it was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean on the night of 2–3 March 1942.[4] Saunders was killed and his name is listed on the Kranji War Memorial.[2] Saunders was the only former member of the Brentford and Sunderland squads to lose his life during the war.[4] In December 2014, Saunders and other Sunderland players who lost their lives during the two world wars were commemorated with a statue outside the Stadium of Light.[5]
