SANDERSON-GEORGE

A  VERY  LONG  AND  UNIQUE  CAREER

 

George “Sandy” Sanderson, BMC, USN, has been described as the quintessential example of a Chief Petty Officer serving in the U.S. Navy during the early part of the 20^th century.  Included in the collection of VADM Newton A. McCulley (1867-1951) is the picture of Chief Sanderson holding a cigar and on the reverse is inscribed:

George Sanderson, Chief Boatswain Mate, U.S. Navy

Shipmate on the USS CALIFORNIA, 1907-1910

A character and a tough one, never found any good in anyone or in anything, but in an emergency he would be on hand.

 

 

Excerpts from article published in ALL HANDS MAGAZINE, March 1949:

 

NAVY’S GRAND OLD MAN RATES 11 GOLD HASHMARKS

George Sanderson, BMC, USN (Ret), has spent 44 of his 87 years on active duty with the U.S. Navy and he wants more!  Chief Sanderson is said to have been the oldest man on active duty with the allied forces during World War II.  He retired to his comfortable home in Richmond, California, at the age of 83, after making 21 trips around the world and serving in a colorful array of duty ships and stations.  In his later years of active duty, Chief Sanderson performed invaluable recruiting duties throughout the western part of the United States.  This duty was comparatively quiet when matched with his service in every quarter of the world during four wars.  Sandy served in ships with Midshipmen (later admirals) Rock, Leahy, Pratt, Reeves, Yarnell and Kemp.  He has seen duty in some of the Navy’s great old ships including USS HARTFORD, USS INDEPENDENCE, USS MOHICAN, USS IROQUOIS and others.

 

Chief Sanderson was born in York, England, on 3 January 1862, and joined the U.S. Navy on 7 July 1882.  In his service jacket can be found nine enlistments, two orders to report for duty and one recall to duty.  Still, civilian life is too dull for the 87-year old “sea dog.”  An enviable collection of Navy books occupies a large portion of Chief Sanderson’s home.  He has what is believed to be the largest privately owned Navy library in the world.  Its more than 3,000 volumes offer some diversion to Sandy.  He is willing to turn his valuable collection over to the Navy.  Many of the books were published in the 1870s and are now out of print.  In addition to his book library, Chief Sanderson maintains a pictorial library with old time Navy prints numbering into the thousands.

 

Listed among his cherished memories, Sandy recalls seal protection duty in the Bering Sea, nursing yellow fever victims, battling a lumber fire in New Zealand, landing in Panama to quiet native riots, rescuing five men from drowning and shelling the Philippine Islands from a gunboat.  He was given 24 hours to live when stricken with fever in Ecuador.  That was many decades ago and Sandy still looks back on it with a chuckle.  During World War I, Sanderson organized a gunnery school at New York and was placed in charge of the 542 men assigned there.  On 7 July 1922, Sandy was retired for the third time exactly 40 years after his first enlistment.  Each time the nation’s peace became clouded the chief bounced into a recruiting office—uniform and all—requesting active duty.  In August 1945, at the age of 83, Chief Sanderson bade farewell to his beloved Navy for the last time.  However, he’s still keeping his weather eye open for an opportunity to return to active duty.

 

 

NOTE:  The 1920 Federal Census records report that George Sanderson immigrated to the United States in 1879, became a citizen in 1919 and was married this same year.  Historical records report that he began his sea career at the age of 13 when he became an ordinary seaman in the Merchant Marine during 1875, and served at sea until joining the U.S. Navy in July 1882.  Records report he fought in the Spanish American War, the Philippine Insurrection and later in China during the Boxer Rebellion.  Chief Sanderson is also reported to have volunteered for active duty in 1950 at the outbreak of the Korean War but was turned down.  He died on July 17, 1951 at the Naval Hospital in Oakland, California, and was laid to rest at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Francisco.

 

Submitted by CDR Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)