Catalogue description Copies of weekly letters of Robert Saunders, headmaster of Fletching School, to his son in Canada

For Robert Saunders' logbooks as headmaster of Fletching School, 1890-1919, see ESC 71/1-4

For a copy of the report of the retirement of Robert and Elsie Saunders from the Sussex Express, 4 April 1919, see AMS6524/6

The originals of these documents are deposited at the Imperial War Museum, reference 79/15/1). They were written by Robert Saunders to his son William John Saunders (1880-1971), an accountant, who had emigrated to Winnipeg in 1914. The letters are typescript, and it is assumed that they were copied by William Saunders on receipt

Copies purchased 10 October 1998 (ACC 7751)

The letters were extensively used in Michael Moynihan (ed), Greater Love: Letters Home, 1914-1918 (W H Allen, 1980)

Robert Saunders was born on 19 December 1854, son of William Saunders of Croydon and Harriet Cornfield. He married Elsie Francis, daughter of John Francis of New Road, Chatteris in Cambridgeshire, on 6 August 1878. Both Saunders and his wife were teachers, and served as headmaster of Fletching School from 1890 to 1919; they lived at St Mary's House in Fletching village. They retired on 1 April 1919, moved to St Leonards and subsequently settled in Sutton, Surrey. He died on 14 January 1941 and is buried at Sutton

Apart from the recipient of the letters, most of Robert and Elsie Saunders' thirteen children were involved in different aspects of the Great War. His sons Walter Henry, Arthur Robert and Ronald Frank served respectively with the Middlesex Regiment in India and Mesopotamia, with the Royal Navy and with the East Surrey Regiment, subsequently flying airships with the Royal Flying Corps. Of the couple's daughters, two taught for the London County Council and experienced frequent Zeppelin raids, and a third, Louise, joined the Queen Mary's Auxiliary Army Corps and served in France

It is clear from the letters that most members of the Saunders family wrote to each other throughout the war, and their father's letters to Canada contain a distillation of all their news. In addition, Saunders' position as headmaster at Fletching brought him into constant touch with wounded men and bereaved families, the proximity of Maresfield Camp provided a window, if often an obscure one, on troop-movements, and as secretary of the Fletching Reading-Room and a voracious yet discrimating reader of newspapers Saunders was in close touch with local public opinion, familiar with events on all fronts and critical of propaganda and censorship

As a result, the letters reflect most aspects of the Great War - the Home Front, including Zeppelin raids on London and food shortages, is especially well represented, as is the reaction of women to the war and their participation in it