William Edward Sanders

Lieutenant-Commander William Edward Sanders VC DSO, Royal Naval Reserve, was born in Auckland, New Zealand, on 7 February 1883. He went to sea as a young man, beginning as a cabin boy in 1899, and built a professional merchant-marine career in New Zealand waters before the First World War. By late 1914 he had earned his master’s certificate, and after initial wartime service in the Merchant Navy he was commissioned into the Royal Naval Reserve in April 1916.

Sanders became associated with Britain’s secret Q-ship service: armed merchant vessels disguised as helpless targets to lure German U-boats to the surface. After early service aboard HMS Helgoland, his skill earned him command of HMS Prize in February 1917. On 30 April 1917, while commanding Prize south of Ireland, Sanders allowed his damaged vessel to appear vulnerable after being attacked by a German submarine. When the U-boat closed in, Prize revealed her guns and fought back, driving off the enemy submarine. For his “conspicuous gallantry, consummate coolness and skill,” Sanders was awarded the Victoria Cross.

He did not live to receive the public recognition that would normally have followed. On the night of 13/14 August 1917, HMS Prize was sunk by a German U-boat in the Atlantic, and Sanders was killed with his ship. He was 34 years old. He was later also awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Sanders remains especially notable as the first and only New Zealander to receive the Victoria Cross for a naval action. His VC is held by the Auckland War Memorial Museum.