resigned the office of physician to Guy's Hospital in 1802, and retired from practice in 1814. He died on 29 May 1817 at Enfield, is buried there, and has a monument, erected by his children, in the parish church. His portrait was presented to the College of Physicians by his son J. J. Saunders, and is preserved there (cf. Bromley, Cat. Engr. Portraits).
[Works; Munk's Coll. of Phys. ii. 399; Wilks and Bettany's Biographical History of Guy's Hospital, 1892.]
SAUNDERS, WILLIAM (1823–1895), journalist and politician, born 20 Nov. 1823, at Russell Mill, Market Lavington, Wiltshire, was youngest son of Amram Edward Saunders. He was educated at a school in Devizes, and went to work at his father's flour-mills in Market Lavington and Bath. About 1844 he opened extensive quarries near the Box tunnel on the Great Western Railway, and on 27 April 1852 married Caroline, daughter of Dr. Spender of Bath. With the assistance of his father-in-law, he started the ‘Plymouth Western Morning News’ in 1860. Journalistic ventures in Newcastle followed, but his greatest success was at Hull, where he founded the ‘Eastern Morning News’ in 1864. He remained proprietor of this paper until within a few months of his death. He had meanwhile been experiencing great difficulty in obtaining news for his provincial papers, and in 1863 started the Central Press, the first news-distributing agency. In 1870 this became the Central News Agency, still under the direction of Saunders. One of his most memorable achievements in connection with this agency was to persuade the dean of St. Paul's to permit him to carry a special wire into St. Paul's gallery on the occasion of the thanksgiving service for the recovery of the Prince of Wales in 1872.
Saunders was a well-known personality in the politics of his day. He was one of the first English champions of the theories of land nationalisation as advocated by Mr. Henry George, and for the last ten years of his life was prominently connected with the agitation for nationalisation of land in England. He entered parliament in 1885 as liberal member for East Hull, but was defeated at the general election of the following year. Meanwhile he took an active part in London politics, particularly in connection with the attempts which the radical clubs made to keep Trafalgar Square open for public meetings in 1887. In 1889 he was elected by Walworth to the first London County Council, and the same constituency sent him to parliament in 1892. Latterly his views took too pronouncedly a socialistic complexion for his party. He died at Market Lavington on 1 May 1895.
In addition to numerous pamphlets chiefly on the land question, Saunders wrote: 1. ‘Through the Light Continent,’ London, 1879. 2. ‘The New Parliament, 1880,’ London, 1880. 3. ‘History of the First London County Council,’ London, 1892.
[Weekly Dispatch, 5 May 1895; Illustr. London News, 13 Feb. 1886; private information.]
SAUNDERS, WILLIAM WILSON (1809–1879), entomologist and botanist, second son of James Saunders, D.C.L. (1770–1838), vicar of Kirtlington, Oxfordshire, was born at Little London, near Wendover, Buckinghamshire, 4 June 1809. He was educated privately till 1827, when he was sent to the East India Company's military academy at Addiscombe. He passed second in examination, and obtained his commission in the engineers in August 1829. He at once joined his corps at Chatham, and went out to India in August 1830, but resigned the following year. Returning to England, he joined his future father-in-law, Joshua Saunders, in business as an underwriter at Lloyd's, where for many years he was a member of the committee and also of the shipping committee. He resided first at East Hill, Wandsworth, but in 1857 removed to Reigate, where he started in the same year the Holmesdale Natural History Club. In 1873 the firm of which he was then head became involved in the crisis that affected mercantile insurance, and Saunders, disposing of his large collections of insects, living and dried plants, and watercolour drawings, retired the following year to Worthing, where he devoted himself to horticulture. He died at Worthing, 13 Sept. 1879. He was thrice married: first, in 1832, to his cousin, Catharine Saunders; secondly, in 1841, to Mary Anne Mello; thirdly, in 1877, to Sarah Cholmley, who survived him.
Saunders was an enthusiastic naturalist throughout his life. Few contributed more to the advancement of entomology and botany. Owing to his liberality many collectors were able both to start and to continue their labours. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1833, and acted as its treasurer from 1861 to 1873. He was an original member of the Entomological Society, and its president in 1841–2 and 1856–7. He was elected fellow of the Royal Society in 1853 and of the Zoological Society in 1861. He was for several years vice-president of the Royal Horticultural Society.
Saunders was author of upwards of thirty--
