Edwin Sidney Savage

Who was Edwin Sidney Savage?

Edwin Sidney Savage was an English cleric.

Savage was educated at New College, Eastbourne, University College London and Oxford University.

Savage married Jane McEwan who died on 23 November 1886 following the birth of their only child, Ronald McEwan Hill. He married for second time, in 1889, to Sibil Farrar, the daughter of Frederic William Farrar, the Dean of Canterbury. They had one son and four daughters.

Savage was rector of Hexham Abbey from 1898 to 1919, during which time he rebuilt much of the abbey.

As Chief Commissioner for the YMCA in the Mediterranean, he served on 21 ships during World War I.

For his services to the Serbian Red Cross and for the relief of the civil population, Savage was awarded the Order of St Sava and the military rank of major by King Peter I of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. The Orthodox Church conferred on him the Order of the Golden Cross, the insignature of which, a large pectoral cross of repousse gold, he habitually wore. He also served on the International Commission to report on the Bulgarian Atrocities.

On the evening of 26 October 1947, Savage was found dead in a smoke-filled room after raising the alarm for a fire in his sitting room at 18 London Road, Bexhill, a town he had been associated with for the previous 20 years. An inquest returned a verdict of accidental death but the real cause was never determined as there was no evidence found of burning.