John  Sanderson

• General Notes
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    ack Sanderson was born in Anlaby Rd. Hull on 5.9.1898 son of Percy and Jessie Elizabeth ( Tottie) Sanderson. He went to School at Haileybury College. After school he joined the R.F.C.. His flying log book shows him at his flying training station near Thetford on Feb 4rd 1917 flying MFSH. and Avros. He was posted overseas on June 23rd 1917 and served in France. He was commissioned as Lieutenant in the Royal Flying Corps on First of April 1918. He was flying reconnaisance sorties, bombing and machine gunning enemy lines and "harrasing the hun" at Paschendale, The Somme, Riencourt. He was with 50 squadron and then 12 squadron. He was shot down by machine gunfire from the ground on April 3rd 1918 and again on April 4th by shell fire. This was at the time of the German advance. He had done 55hrs flying in a fortnight and on April 17th 1918 he was exhausted and was posted home for a rest ( Information from his flying log book) After the war on 19.4.1921 he married Eileen Hobson and went into the family business of Sanderson Bros. timber importers in1922. Owing to the loss of a lot of timber in Russia to the Bolshevics and adverse trading conditions the firm went into voluntary liquidation and was taken over by Evans in 1938. With WW2 looming Jack went into the Observer Corps. In March 1940 he volunteered for service in the RAF and was commissioned Flt Lieut on 17.4.1940. He resigned from the Observer Corps on 29.4.1940. When he came out of the RAF in 1945 at the end of the war he became involved in looking after his wife's affairs. She had 23 houses in Buttfield Rd Hessle and these were all sold for about £405 each. He was a director of Joseph Newsomes woolen manufacturers. Before the war they had been living at Southfield Hessle. Whilst he was in the RAF the family moved to Oswoldkirk for safety from bombing raids. The Hessle house was badly damaged when a land mine fell nearby. They returned after the war and lived there until they moved to Knox House in Scarborough. Jack did not have very robust health due to his WW2 accidents. He was a very keen gardener and specialised in orchid growing. He died in the Belvedere nursing home in Scarborough on 19.10.1958.