Having trained as a doctor, from 1927 to 1934 he worked at the Methodist mission in the Solomon Islands where he carried out fieldwork in the treatment of malaria.

The significance of this work became apparent when Sayers used his knowledge to reduce deaths of American, Australia and New Zealand military forces during the invasion of Pacific Islands during World War II.

His mother was Amelia Ruth Blandford; his father was Henry Hind Sayers, a cabinet maker from Sussex, England, who suffered from T.B.

On 3 March 1928, at Roviana in New Georgia, Solomon Islands, Sayers married Jane Lumsden Grove; they had six children: two sons, John and Edward; and four daughters, Kathleen, Margaret, Nancy and Pamela.

He dominated the mission and gained the loyalty of Solomon Islander members of his church, although he had an autocratic approach to the management of his subordinates.

[5] Navigating these complicated relationships give Sayers valuable management skills, which he would later apply as a military medical administrator and university dean.

Sayers also identified that an effective treatment of tropical ulcers was the application of non-adherent dressings; he used the recently developed sticking plaster tape.

The officers and men embarked on MV Rawnsley on 19 April, but the ship missed its convoy and was machine-gunned and bombed by German aircraft.

[3] As the consultant in tropical diseases, Sayers identified that providing a solution to the malaria problem was an important element in the conduct of the Pacific war.

[12] Sayers' contribution to the minimisation of deaths from malaria is acknowledged in the Official Histories of World War 2 of the New Zealand Forces[1] and of the United States.

He carried out research into pollen-based allergies and produced serums to counteract the effect of these pollens; he had an extensive patient list of asthmatics in Auckland.

In the 1950s he became the sub-dean of the Auckland Branch Faculty at which final-year students of University of Otago, School of Medicine, completed their training.

In 1958, on the retirement of Sir Charles Hercus, Sayers was appointed as dean of the University of Otago, School of Medicine, together with a chair in therapeutics.

[4] As dean of the medical school he was involved in the revision of the clinical content of fourth- and fifth-year teaching and new chairs in psychological medicine and paediatrics were established during his tenure.