Major Alexander Sanderson MC bar DSO MID

[Robin Sanderson]

hi

Can anyone give advice on the chain of command ie names, rank of Staff officers above my grandfather Major Alexander Sanderson who was CO of the 3rd Australian Tunnelling Co.

Also any other relevant info on this officer is very welcome

Robin

[sotonmate]

Robin

I was going to refer you to a War Diary on the Australian War Memorial site,BUT,whilst the main Engineer organisation (Class 14) is accessible the part (Class 16) concerning the Tunnelling Companies is not yet on line.

I did find a series of War Diaries at Kew for this Tunnelling Company. There are five,and the unit is shown as Army Troops for the 5th Army,so I am thinking that it might be why there is no link yet on the AWM site. A read of some of the material of these Diaries will give you the chain of command which I suspect might be a British RE one. Here the details:

WO95/553 May 1916 to Mar 1917

WO95/554 Apr to Aug 1917

WO95/555 Sep 1917 to Feb 1918

WO95/556 Mar to Jun 1918

WO95/557 Jul to Oct 1918.

In respect of the Officer himself there are seven possibles for his Service Record at Kew:

WO339/3871 Sanderson AC 2/Lt

WO339/6426 AJ Captain

WO339/43314 AK 2/Lt

These are the "Favourites" ! Then four others with the initial A and no rank shown:

WO339/66871

WO339/122819

WO339/128839

WO339/134135

Bear in mind that the rank would have been from the outset of the War,so could be any of the seven !

Sotonmate

[Robin Sanderson]

Sotonmate

Many thanks for this detailed information which I will follow up.You could be right about the British RE

chain of command: the Controller of Mines figures a lot in my investigation as British tunnelling companies in the same area are copied in archive circulars I hold.Thanks for your time:appreciated a lot.

Robin