Mike Sadler

Willis Michael Sadler, (22 February 1920 – 4 January 2024) was a British Army officer. He was the last original member of the Special Air Service and one of the last survivors of the Long Range Desert Group (survived by Jack Mann who also served in the LRDG).

Early life Willis Michael Sadler was born on 22 February 1920 in Kensington, London, England, to Adam and Wilma Sadler. When his father moved to Stroud, Gloucestershire, to manage a plastics factory, the family moved to the nearby village of Sheepscombe. Sadler attended Oakley Hall School in Cirencester and Bedales School in Petersfield, Hampshire, which he left in 1937. He was rapidly promoted to sergeant, though was later demoted after a disagreement with an officer.

In early 1944, Sadler was stationed in Darvel, Scotland, to train SAS members for the June 1944 Normandy landings. In August 1944, he parachuted into France as part of Operation Houndsworth and was awarded the Military Cross for killing two German machine gun crews using an armed jeep behind enemy lines.

Mike Sadler (left) alongside Captain Robert Sheppard (centre) and Surgeon Commander Edward W. Bingham (right) aboard the MV Trepassey

After Stirling's capture, the SAS was led by Paddy Mayne until the end of the Second World War. When Mayne was recruited to the Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey, Sadler joined the crew of the MV Trepassey, led by Edward W. Bingham, on a British expedition to Antarctica.

Later years After decades spent working for the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), which included deception efforts during the Falklands War, Sadler retired and took up sailing.

Personal life In 1947, Sadler married Anne Hetherington, a member of the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry, but they divorced in 1949. In 1958, he married Patricia Benson through his work in the British Foreign Office as a member of the Secret Intelligence Service, and they had a daughter named Sally. Patricia Benson Sadler died in 2001.

After the Second World War, Sadler lived in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. Despite losing his eyesight with age, he celebrated his 100th birthday with members of the Special Forces Club in London in 2020. He died on 4 January 2024 at the age of 103 in a nursing home in Cambridge, England.

In popular culture In 2013, Sean Rayment's Fighting Rommel: Captain Mike Sadler was published, part of his Tales from the Special Forces Club series of short stories.

In 2022, Tom Shankland directed SAS: Rogue Heroes, a historical drama television series about the Special Air Service's Western Desert Campaign during the Second World War based on Ben Macintyre's 2016 book of the same name. In the series, Sadler was portrayed by Tom Glynn-Carney.