SAUNDERS, WILLIAM (1851-1935), born in Pembroke, Wales, was educated at the county school, Bedford, and studied for the ministry at Hackney College, London. Ordained in 1884, he had charge of Bromley-by-Bow till 1890, when he came to New Zealand as minister of the Moray Place Congregational Church, Dunedin, from which he retired in 1928. Saunders was chairman of the Ross Home committee and of the local branch of the London Missionary Society; vice-president of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and a member of the Bible-in-schools committee and of the Dunedin crematorium society. For a number of years he was chaplain to the forces, and he was largely responsible for the organisation of the Council of Churches. He was four times chairman of the Congregational Union of New Zealand. In 1890 he married a daughter of D. Hutchinson, of London. He died on 8 Jun 1935.

Cycl. NZ, iv (p); Who's Who NZ, 1908, 1924, 1932; Otago Daily Times, 10 Jun 1935.

Reference: Volume 2, page 140

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