World War II veteran celebrates 102nd birthday

Sandy Saunders always has a story to tell. And at 102 years of age, there are plenty of stories after more than 10 decades of living.

The Winter Garden resident believes his deceased grandfather helped him escape death when he served in the British Army during World War II. He then arrived in America on the RMS Queen Mary during its maiden voyage as a luxury ocean liner following the war.

Saunders has been a Boy Scout leader. He has amassed six trophies for his artwork and seven for his dance moves. He can play the piano. He has an annual Disney pass. He takes frequent cruises.

A BORN STORYTELLER

Samuel “Sandy” Saunders came into this world with a readymade story to tell. He was born in London on Feb. 29, 1916, and the 102-year-old Leap Year baby likes to tell everyone he has had only 25-and-one-half birthdays.

He grew up on the third floor of a three-story house; his father operated the ground-floor barbershop, and his mother ran the beauty salon on the second level. By the time he was 11, he was prepping the men for their weekend shave or haircut. At 13, London’s age limit for attending school, Saunders was a full-blown barber and hairdresser.

Four years later, he was a makeup artist and hairdresser with Universal Pictures.

That career was cut short when Saunders was drafted into the British Army. He knew first aid, so he was put in charge of recording the medical history of all the recruits. One day he saw a notice for kitchen help, and he eventually ran the kitchen as a first-class cook.

“When I spoke to my mother at the time, she said, ‘At least you know something about cooking so you won’t be on the front line,’” Saunders said.

By 1942, he was sailing from Greenock, Scotland, to Egypt with 9,999 other soldiers, many of them sleeping in hammocks on this 2,000-passenger ship.

THE WAR YEARS

Saunders’s mind remains sharp at 102, and he can recall most of his war experiences: a half-day stop in Sierra Leone, a trip up the Red Sea to Cairo before being transported into the desert for the El Alamein campaign against Germany.

The troops traveled through the deserts to Tunisia and onto a barge headed for Italy, all the while fighting the Germans.

As they made their way through Italy, Saunders read another notice addressed to Jewish personnel who wanted to join the Jewish brigade.

“Being of the Jewish faith, I decided it would be boys like myself, but it did not turn out to be boys like myself,” he said. “It turned out to be boys from Middle East, Romania, Palestine who joined the British Army.”

When someone was needed to translate from Hebrew to English, Saunders was summoned.

One story he likes to tell is the day the British Army trucks drove into Germany with the Star of David painted on the side.

“They wanted to show the Germans that you can’t kill the Jews,” he said matter-of-factly.

On another assignment, he and his men overran a German ammunition dump.

“Of course, the first thing in your mind is, ‘I have to get a souvenir,’” he said. “I picked up a shell, 12 inches long. I started to undo the wing, and a voice said to me in Jewish, ‘Throw it away.’ I looked around and didn’t see anybody so I kept on. Again, the voice said, ‘Throw it away.’ This time, I said to the other boys, ‘Get down behind something. I’m going to throw this and see what happens.’ It exploded.”

Saunders remembered his mother telling him before he went to war that his grandfather, who had passed away, would look over him and take care of him.

“I believe he kept me safe,” Saunders said. “From then on, I stayed out of the dump. I didn’t want to press my luck.”

Saunders was in Brussels, Belgium, when peace was declared in 1945. He was discharged from the Army as a sergeant after six years of service and sent home.

BACK TO CIVILIAN LIFE

When Saunders returned to London, his family’s beauty parlor had been destroyed by German rockets. The family established another salon in a different part of London, and Saunders was to be in charge of it.

But first he wanted to go to beauty school to hone his skills. After showing the professor what he could do, the teacher offered Saunders a job as an instructor.

One-and-one-half years later, Saunders was getting the itch to travel, and his mother suggested he come to the United States and stay with his mother’s family.

He arrived on the Queen Mary and worked several jobs as a hairdresser.

While attending a party, he met Belle, whom he would later marry. Their marriage began on New Year’s Day 1949 and lasted 57 years. They had two children.

The last time Saunders saw London was in 1964, when he and Belle visited his parents. On their return trip aboard the Queen Mary, they sailed under the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, which was under construction.

Saunders met his second wife, Elba, at a senior center dance in Brooklyn, and they were married in 2011.

He spends his time painting and dancing and taking cruises. He likes to take his boat out on the lake. He puts together puzzles.

He keeps a positive outlook on life and says he probably will live another 17 years. He loves telling jokes.

“I like to see people happy,” he said. “Unfortunately, you can't walk up to everyone and tell them to take the chip off their shoulder. You look at people younger than myself, you look at the elderly people, they walk around just waiting to die.

“I take each day as it comes, good, bad or indifferent.”