| Frank Saunders | |
 | |
| Birth: | 2 July 1906 Liverpool, Merseyside, England, UK |
| Death: | 19 March 2013 Stirling, Scotland, UK |
| Age: | 106 years, 260 days |
| Country: |  UK
|
| Centenarian | |
Francis William "Frank" Saunders, MBE, ERD (2 July 1906 – 19 March 2013) was a British centenarian who was the oldest living man in Scotland since the death of James Hagan, until his own death.
Biography
Frank Saunders was born in Fazakerley, Liverpool, England on 2 July 1906. Many of his ancestors had worked in the military.
Saunders worked as a civil engineer before joining the military during the Second World War, which he would stay in for 25 years.
Saunders became part of the British Expeditionary Force in 1939 and was one of many British troops to be evacuated from France when it fell to Nazi occupation. He served in many countries as part of the Royal Engineers, serving in divisions such as the 2nd Polish Corps of the 8th Army in the Italian campaign and in the 3rd Corps during the Greek Civil War.
Following the Second World War, Saunders was moved to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers as a Lieutenant Colonel until he retired from duty in 1961. He also became active in politics - joining the Conservative Party - and was elected to the Stirling Burgh Council in 1964. He remained in this post throughout the council's transition to the Central Regional Council following local government reorganisation.
Saunders was forced to leave the Conservative Party in 1994 following his opposition to the party's reorganisation of local governments. He ran unsuccessfully as an independent candidate in two elections in 1995 and 1999, before gaining a post serving on Stirling Council's environmental quality committee in August 2000. At 94, he was the oldest serving politician in Scotland.
Saunders died on 19 March 2013, at the age of 106. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living man in Scotland. His successor as the oldest man in Scotland was then-105-year-old Tom MacIver.
References
- Obituary: Lieutenant Colonel Frank Saunders MBE ERD, soldier, councillor, public servant The Scotsman, 26 March 2013
- Francis William Saunders Legacy.com, 26 March 2013
| Scotland's Oldest Living Man Titleholders (V • E) |
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Andrew Amos • Alexander MacPhail • James Mathison • William Kirkpatrick • Thomas Maxwell • Robert Spence • William Green • Samuel Brown • James Webster • William Laidlaw • John Macrae • Thomas Senior • Peter Melville • Gavin Allan • John Young • Angus MacLeod • James Watt • Donald Maclellan • Robert Grieve • Henry Reid • John Macaskill • William Laing • George Wilkie • Donald MacInnes • James Matches • James Balnaves • James Morrison • Joseph McVinnie • Francis Mathison • John MacGregor • John Dykes • John Neill • James Ogilvie • Alexander Pirie • George Ferguson • William Mair • Jock Smith • Alexander Mackay • Tom Petrie • George McLaren • Henry Kempton • Andrew Main • Gilbert Campbell • John McNally • William Burns • Lachlan MacQueen • Gilbert Watson • Angus Orr • William Eeles • John Glendinning • Robert McBride • John Barr • John Morton • Andrew Drummond • Peter Cummings • James Hardy • David Henderson • Ernest Clucas • Ewen Ross • Sandy Gall • Alfred Anderson • James Wotherspoon • Bob Taggart • Sam Latter • John Hodge • Leo Tavelli • David Campbell • James Hagan • Frank Saunders • Tom MacIver • Alf Smith • Jimmy Sinclair • Chic Kennedy • Walter Sharp • George Pollard • David Crawford • Hugh |