W. Hilton Saunders was 21 when he joined the first Coo-ee recruiting march at Wongarbon, N.S.W. on October 10, 1915. The men marched the 320 mile trek on the Coo-ee trail from the mid-western farming town of Gilgandra to Sydney, gathering about three hundred volunteer troops on the way, and reaching Sydney on November 12, 1915. After four months of training at the Liverpool camp the Coo-ees embarked on March 8, 1916 on the HMAT Star of England transport A15 as the 15th Battalion, disembarking at Egypt. Saunders joined the Brigade Ammunition Column of the 4th Division and later transferred to the Divisional Ammunition Column. After the war he bought a butcher's shop with a bakery attached and then sold out and went shearing. In 1930 during the depression, he bought a mixed business in Sydney.
From the description of W. Hilton Saunders manuscript collection [manuscript]. 1915-1965. (Libraries Australia). WorldCat record id: 223689536
