Geoffrey Euan (N.B. Many official records appear to misspell his middle name as Evan, or similar, but closer examination of hand-written documents appears to confirm it was Euan.) Sanderson

Forename(s):
Geoffrey Euan (N.B. Many official records appear to misspell his middle name as Evan, or similar, but closer examination of hand-written documents appears to confirm it was Euan.)

Surname:
Sanderson

Initial(s):
G E

Service Number:
Officer

Rank:
Lieutenant (Temporary)

Regiment:
Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), Public Schools Battalion, attached to Machine Gun Corps (Infantry), 107th Company

Died:
01/07/1916

Aged:
27

Buried:
Thiepval Memorial

Service History:
At the outbreak of war Sanderson assisted with the recruitment & training of miners in Northumberland, until he joined the Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment)'s Public Schools Battalion. Early in 1915 he received a commission & was gazetted as a Lieutenant to the Royal Irish Rifles, 9th (Service) Battalion (West Belfast), as Adjutant.

107th Machine Gun Company, Machine Gun Corps joined 107th Infantry Brigade, 36th (Ulster) Division on 18 December 1915.

On the first day of the 1916 Battles of the Somme, 1 July, the Division was tasked to attack at Thiepval where it sustained heavy casualties. As his unit had run out of bombs, Sanderson led his men with a rifle to charge the enemy & was killed instantly.

The Ulster Tower at Thiepval is a memorial to the men of the 36th (Ulster) Division, built as a copy of Helen's Tower at Clandeboye, County Down, where the Division had trained before moving to the Western Front.

As he entered the French theatre of war in 1915, Sanderson was awarded the 1915 Star in addition to the Victory & British War medals.
(Source: 'Portraits of War...'; Edited & compiled by June Watson; Wildgoose Press; 2016; pp. 75-76)

Background:
Born on 3 April 1889, at Newcastle upon Tyne, Northumberland, the son of William John Sanderson, of Eastfield Hall, Warkworth, Northumberland, by his wife, Amelia, (Amy; née Wright).

Educated at Marlborough College, Wiltshire (from 1895), & Jesus College, Cambridge (January 1903 to Midsummer 1906).

His pre-war occupation was that of a Stockbroker at London's Stock Exchange.

One of two sons lost: see, also, Captain Philip Noel Sanderson (King's Own Scottish Borderers, 1st Battalion; Died 26 April 1915).

Apart from Philip Noel, brother to Elspeth Blanche, William John, & Dorothy Phyllis.

Sanderson's father was a Brewer & Maltster who owned the Haymarket Brewery in Newcastle, was Lord Mayor of Newcastle, & founder of the J. W. Sanderson Home for Crippled Children in Gosforth.

The 1911 Census records Sanderson, sister Blanche & parents staying at The Grand Hotel, Strand, London. All were living off their own means. In 1915, Sanderson lived at 2, Mitre Court Buildings, Temple, London.

He was a Freemason, originally a member of Alnwick 1167 Lodge, later Isaac Newton Lodge, Cambridge 859.

On 10 August 1916 Probate was granted in London to Sanderson's brother, William John, a Barrister-at-Law, for Effects valued at £646-6s-7d.
(Source: 'Portraits of War...'; Edited & compiled by June Watson; Wildgoose Press; 2016; pp. 75-76)

Local Memorial:
London, Stock Exchange War Memorial Marlborough, Marlborough College Roll of Honour (Source: For London & Marlborough, 'Portraits of War...'; Edited & compiled by June Watson; Wildgoose Press; 2016; p. 76) Warkworth War Memorial, by St Lawrence's Church