SAUNDERS, Trelawney (1821-1910) — London
Geographer, mapseller & publisher. Published Robert Rettie, ‘On the necessity of employing one universal system of marine night signals for preventing collision at sea’ 1847; published, with others, Benjamin Rees Davies (see BME 2011), London and its environs 1847; also ‘Atlas of the counties of Ireland’ 1847; John Baily, Map of Central America including the states of Guatemala, Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua & Costa-Rica 1850; Map of France : showing the railways and the navigable canals 1850; Thomas Forester, ‘Norway in 1848 and 1849 : containing rambles among the fjelds and fjords’ 1850, with a map; engraved and published W. Meadows Brownrigg, Saunders’ official map of the Australian gold country. Compiled from official records & information afforded by Mr. E. H. Hargraves, the discoverer of the gold country 1851; produced a weather chart of the British Isles, updated daily at the Great Exhibition 1851; Plan of the auriferous region of Mount Alexander, in the colony of Victoria 1853, with Edward Stanford (see BME 2011); Map of Australia showing the gold fields 1853, again with Stanford; W. D. Cooley, Map of Africa, from the Equator to the Southern Tropic 1853, engraved by Francis Paul Becker (see BME 2011), with Stanford; Map of Central America shewing the proposed lines of communication between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 1853, with Stanford; A sketch of the mountains of India and its borders 1870; The central part of British Burmah with the Shan province of Burmah and Siam 1870; The Himalaya and Tibet : a view of the mountain system bounded by the plains of India, Gobi, China and the Caspian 1873; The Kaibar, Karkatcha and Kurram Passes 1878; Stanford’s new map of Kabul and the country round 1880; Map of Western Palestine 1882 (6-sheet), etc.
Born Trelawney William Saunders at Plymouth 16 Apr 1821, the son of Thomas Saunders (1796-1887), a hairdresser and perfumer, and his wife Lucy Luscombe (1797-1832?), who had married at Plymouth in 1819. At eighteen, he journeyed to London to join the publishers ‘Samuel Bagster & Sons’, travelling as an outside coach passenger and almost freezing to death crossing Salisbury Plain in a snowstorm. He was lodging in Lambeth as a young bookseller in 1841. He married Catherine Ann Knight (1818-1882), daughter of Commander Thomas Edward Knight, R.N., with whom he had six children, 1 Oct 1844 at St. Martin in the Fields. Set up for himself as a “geographical bookseller” in 1845. Elected a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society 12 Jan 1846, proposed by Alexander Keith Johnston (see BME 2011) and others. In 1850, he was advertising his premises as the “Colonial Reading Rooms” and stocking and publishing works on emigration, e.g. Sidney Smith, ‘Female emigration, as it is — as it may be, a letter’ and Byrne’s Emigrants Journal, the latter with the well-known Effingham Wilson of the Royal Exchange. He was resident with his wife, two daughters, his mother-in-law, and a servant at Charing Cross in 1851. He employed Edward Stanford (see BME 2011) for a time from 1848, Stanford returning to become a partner 1852-1853. The partnership was dissolved 11 Jul 1853, with Stanford continuing alone, while Saunders published his ‘The Asiatic Mediterranean and its Australian port’, advocating a settlement on the Gulf of Carpentaria. He became map curator to the RGS 22 Jan 1854, renouncing his fellowship until re-elected 23 Apr 1883. In 1857 he proposed a national college for “the practical application of science to the public service”. This scheme came to nothing and Saunders then became the head of Stanford’s Geographical Department, editing a series of library maps, drawn and engraved by Alexander Keith Johnston, as well as a series of school wall maps. He superintended a survey of London at twelve inches to the mile, etc. In 1868 he ended his formal association with Stanford and was appointed Assistant Geographer to the India Office, eventually producing ‘A catalogue of manuscript and printed reports, field books, memoirs, maps, etc., of Indian surveys’ 1878. He also became a prominent public speaker on matters of both geography and international trade — “His work outside the India Office is well known. As a regular attendant and frequent contributor at the meetings of the British Association, the Geographical and other societies, no geographical expert was better known” (Homeward Mail, 7 Sep 1885). He retired from the India Office in 1885 — “Mr. Trelawney Saunders is a recognised geographical authority of the highest rank, and his right to be called the first English cartographer of the day could not be seriously challenged. Although the study of Indian geography has advanced with gigantic strides since 1868, sufficient remains to be done to make the retirement of Mr. Saunders, who has had no inconsiderable share in increasing popular interest in the subject, an official loss which it may be difficult to fully repair” (Colonies and India, 4 Sep 1885). He also wrote on biblical geography, e.g. ‘An introduction to the survey of Western Palestine’ 1881. On retirement and now a widower he moved to Newton Abbot, where he died 22 Jul 1910, his final years blighted by blindness and loss of memory. He was buried at Highweek 25 Jul 1910. Probate on effects of £555.7s.3d. was granted to a son 20 Aug 1910.
— Addington Place, Lambeth (home) — 1841
6 Charing Cross — 1845-1853
— 46 St. Paul’s Road, Kentish Town (home) — 1861
— 26 Lawford Road, Kentish Town (home) — 1871
— Drewstead, Leigham Court Road, Streatham (home) — 1881
— 8 Lichfield Road, Richmond (home) — 1885
— 3 Elmfield, Knowles Hill, Highweek, Newton Abbot (home) — 1891-1910
BBTI. BNA. Brown. Census 1841-1901. Chubb. Herbert. Howgego. Hyde. LG. LHD. NA. Smith. Tooley.