To save anyone having to read this back....
John Saunders and his wife Ann seem to have had at least three children baptised in Bristol:
George Augustus bap 23rd Sep 1827 at St Philip & St Jacob, age 1 month, parents John and Ann Saunders. Abode St Philip, father's occupation Coal Merchant
Mary bap 8th Feb 1829 at St. Phillip and St. Jacob, parents John and Ann Saunders. Abode St Phillip, father's occupation Brewer.
Elizabeth bap 05 Dec 1830 at St Augustine-the-Less, Bristol, parents John and Ann Saunders. Abode Anchor Lane, father's occupation Servant.
I have never found the parents, John and Ann after these baptisms for their children. I have traced the daughters Elizabeth and Mary forward, but no clues about John and Ann were forthcoming. I had presumed George Augustus had died, possibly before civil registration, but now I'm not so sure....
I thought I was just going to eliminate this George below, but it's not happening so far! I'm putting what I've found in chronological order, but that's not the order I found the info...
1841 Census - (possible entry) Brompton Barracks, Gillingham, Medway, Kent:
George Saunders 15 soldier not born in county
1851 Census - Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, Kent:
George Saunders Private unm 24 Private Royal Marines b St Philips & Jacob, Gloucestershire
Marriage Entry - St Dunstan Stepney 9 Jun 1851 banns
George Saunders, full age, bachelor, Private Royal Marines, residence Stepney, father John Saunders sugar refiner
Martha Norton, full age, spinster, residence Stepney, father John Norton inspector of pavements
witnesses Henry Caton and Hannah White. Everyone signed.
1861 Census - 21 Lower Wood St, Woolwich, Kent
George Sanders head married 35 labourer b Bristol
Martha Sanders wife married 28 b Camberwell
Martha Sanders dau 5 b Woolwich, Kent
George Sanders son 2 b Woolwich, Kent
1871 Census - 4 Days Alley, Chatham, Kent
George (middle initial ?, but it isn't an A!) Saunders head married 45 smith dockyard b Somerset, Bristol
Martha Saunders wife married 37 b Surrey, Camberwell
Martha Saunders dau 15 scholar b Kent, Woolwich
George Saunders son 12 ditto
Charles Saunders son 8 ditto
James Saunders son 4 ditto
Ann Saunders dau 1 b Kent, Chatham
The children all have mmn Norton.
I'm not sure what happens next. There are some possible matches for some of the sons in S Wales in later censuses, but at the moment I'm more interested in whether John Saunders sugar refiner is yet another incarnation for my tricky 3xg-grandfather, and if this is him, does it help at all?!!