▶Date of birth:   1Q 1852       Place of birth: Newbury, Berkshire

▶Father: Charles Sanders      Mother:  Christiana Lepage

▶Spouse(s):  (1) Mary E. Thorburn; (2) Elizabeth Blanche Ernestine Buckland     Date(s) of marriage:  (1) 1 February 1888; (2) 29 March 1894       Place(s) of marriage: (1) Lahore; (2) All Saints’ Church, Cheltenham

▶Occupation: Clergyman (Anglican)

▶Lifestory: Montague Charles Sanders spent much of his time abroad in India, but he had an attachment for Cheltenham dating perhaps to the days of his first wife. He was born in Newbury, in 1852, the elder son of Charles Sanders, a saddler, from Salisbury, and his wife Christian (née Lepage). Sanders matriculated at Trinity College, Dublin, BA 1879, MA 1882; he was ordained Deacon in 1879, and Priest (both Chester) in 1880.

Sanders was licensed Curate of Nantwich and served from 1879 until 1883, when he left Britain to serve as an Army Chaplain in India, until 1904; while he was in India he was an Assistant Chaplain at Simla 1883-5, and at Simla and Jutogh 1885-6; in June 1885 he had been appointed by the Secretary of State for India “to be a Junior Chaplain on the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment”.

He then moved to Ambala 1886-93, during which period he was granted six months’ leave to return to Britain in 1887-8; in early 1888 he married Mary Elizabeth (“Lizzie”), daughter of W. Thorburn MD Edinburgh, at Lahore (she died in Bombay after three months’ illness in 1890; her mother lived in Cheltenham at the time of her death, as Mrs Bromfield). Other responsibilities in Ambala included serving as President of the Garrison branch of the Church of England Temperance Society. In 1888 he received three months’ “privilege leave” and travelled to Simla, and in 1890 another six months’ leave to settle some private matters in England.

When his posting in Ambala was over, he went on furlough for two years in 1893 (via Japan and America). During this time he was married, in 1894, at All Saints’ Church in Cheltenham, to Elizabeth Blanche Ernestine, daughter of farmer Thomas Buckland, of Quelverland, near Malmesbury, Wiltshire (she lived at Stanbrook, Pittville Circus at the time of her marriage); they had two children. He was also licensed to officiate at services within the diocese of Chester.

Back in India he was appointed by HM Indian Government to serve as a Chaplain at Karachi 1895-7 (and as a Senior Chaplain on the Bengal Ecclesiastical Establishment), at Murree 1897-8, again at Simla 1898-1902, and once more at Karachi 1902-5. He became the Diocesan Inspector of Schools for the Punjab and Sind, and Secretary of the Diocesan Board of Education in Lahore 1900-4, and enjoyed a further two years of furlough 1905-7 (in 1907-8 he is listed as living at Percy House, Wellington Square, in Pittville), where he took “occasional duty”.

Although he had left India on furlough, Sanders remained in Britain, and served for the next twenty-three years as Chaplain of the Gloucester County Mental Hospital 1908-30, during which time he was also appointed Curate-in-Charge at Holy Trinity, Longlevens, Gloucester 1921-5. Sanders left his post at Gloucester County Asylum in 1930, and removed to Teddington-on-Thames, in Middlesex.

He died there in 1939, at the age of eighty-seven; his wealth at death was valued at just over £63.

▶Moved to Pittville from:   Karachi     Moved from Pittville to: Gloucester

▶Date of death:   23 September 1939     Place of death: Teddington, Middlesex

▶Date of burial:         Place of burial:

▶Notes: Gloucestershire Echo 23 December 1907       ID: 17416

Contributor(s):  John Simpson/Alan Munden