Percy Saunders

Percy Saunders

Personal information
Full name	Percival Kitchener Saunders
Date of birth	9 July 1916
Place of birth	Newhaven, England
Date of death	2–3 March 1942 (aged 25)
Place of death	SS Rooseboom, Indian Ocean
Position(s)	Inside forward
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
0000–1936	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.

Personal life

Saunders was a sergeant in the 18th Divisional Workshops, Royal Army Ordnance Corps, during the Second World War. 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. The ship was headed for Bombay when it was torpedoed in the Indian Ocean on the night of 2–3 March 1942. Saunders was killed and his name is listed on the Kranji War Memorial. Saunders was the only former member of the Brentford and Sunderland squads to lose his life during the war. 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.

Career statistics

Appearances and goals by club, season and competition

Club	Season	League			FA Cup		Other		Total
		Division	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Sunderland	1937–38	First Division	15	6	0	0	—		15	6
	1938–39	First Division	5	0	0	0	1	1	6	1
Career total			20	6	0	0	1	1	21	7

See also

• List of footballers killed during World War II