Transcript

FREDERICK GEORGE SAVAGE

1870 – 1930

POSTMAN, NATURALIST AND MORE

Frederick George ‘Jack’ Savage was a well-known and much respected figure in Stratford; so popular, that his obituary filled the front page of the local newspaper.

He was born in Leamington Spa, the son of a butcher, in 1870. Following his mother’s early death and family strife, he was sent to live with his uncle’s family in Shakespeare Street, Stratford. When he was 14 years old, he was apprenticed to a Birmingham baker; the work badly affected his health and, aged 25, he returned to Shakespeare Street, the street in which he lived for the rest of his life.

By this time his life’s course was set: he had an abiding love of Nature and the countryside; he read widely as a means to self-education; and his time in Birmingham had made him a committed socialist. A friend said that Savage: ‘… never said an unkind word about those who were better off than he was, except in a case of injustice. His attitude to politics was “Raise the poor, don’t injure the rich”.’

He became a postman, a ‘rural letter carrier’, based at the town’s Post Office. His round was a tough one: ‘twelve to twenty miles per diem, seven days a week’ in all weathers, by horse. The wage was poor, about sixteen to eighteen shillings a week, but this was made up for by his being out in the countryside where, in addition to delivering mail, he did two things: he studied Nature and collected folklore from elderly villagers he met on his rounds. He acquired

… [an enormous] stock of almost forgotten songs, dances, legends, superstitions, ghost stories, old-time remedies, cookery recipes, garden and crop knowledge and the like. Everyone who knew him naturally turned in his direction for information on these matters, and rarely in vain, for his store was always available, courteously and cheerfully, without a desire for reward. His memory was well nigh infallible …

He was a member of the local Labour Party and when his fellow postmen decided to form a union branch Savage was its first chairman. He even argued against the Christmas Postman’s Box, the annual public collection for the underpaid ‘posties’, considering it demeaning. Savage worked hard to ensure his co-workers had a pension to retire to and so founded a branch of a Working Men’s Benefit Society.

In 1897 Savage married Annie Freeman. They remained lodgers at Uncle John’s at 6 Shakespeare Street, later moving across the road to number 57 a little later and, finally, to number 12. They raised three children: Herbert, Dorothy and Fred.

His interest in natural history and sound knowledge of other subjects brought him to the attention of the Reverend Harvey Bloom, founder of the Odd Volumes, a local society of amateur naturalists, historians and scientists. Savage was voted into the Society in 1903; he was unfazed by being invited to join a definitely middle-class group; considering himself an equal. Very soon he suggested membership be expanded and that women should be allowed membership. This plea was, of course, ignored; it was not until 1912 that a woman joined the Society’s ranks. An honorary member of the Society was the owner of the Stratford Herald which benefitted Savage: his talk to the Society about Stratford in the coaching days was published in the ‘paper. He gave various talks to his fellow members, including taking his pet hedgehog to illustrate one of them and five home-reared mule finches to accompany a talk on hybridisation. Savage staged his own exhibitions of wild flowers in the Public Library from 1912 to 1914; an attempt to educate townsfolk and to foster an interest in the countryside.

Between 1909 and 1916 Savage wrote a weekly column in the Stratford Herald on the flora mentioned in the works of Shakespeare; 155 species in all. This was well received by readers and in 1916 Savage wrote of his intention to give the same treatment to the birds mentioned by Shakespeare; this series began in May 1916, again to popular enjoyment.

Savage was a very busy man: he had a full-time job, a family to support; and outside interests including writing copy for the Herald. But he was to get much, much busier. The First World War made its demands on him. In early-1916 the government introduced military conscription. Conscripted men could claim exemption from service before a Military Service Tribunal where a decision whether the man should serve or not was made. In Stratford the tribunal was composed mainly of town councillors, but Savage was appointed to the tribunal as a working man’s representative, he being a member of the local Trades and Labour Council. Sittings were in the evening, sometimes late into the night. He was an equal; his appointment was not a token gesture and, on occasion, he sat as Chairman to the tribunal. This unpaid and very onerous role he undertook without complaint.

More responsibility was to follow: later in 1916 Savage was further appointed to the town’s Food Control Committee. This Committee oversaw the implementation of food rationing in the town. Another unpaid and very onerous role, undertaken without complaint.

The war over, life for Savage returned to normal; he no doubt hoped for a quieter time. This was not to be. He was invited to become a magistrate but declined as it would conflict with his working life. Then his ‘… great popularity and sincerity of character prompted many workmen to nominate him for the Town Council.’ He was backed by the local Labour Party to represent New Town Ward. This opportunity was accepted by Savage; his campaign against a Conservative rival resulted in a 454 votes to 436 loss for Savage. He never stood for office again, owing to failing health.

Sometime before 1923 Savage was given the chance to edit, revise and enlarge his weekly articles on Shakespeare’s flora for it to be published as a book. Savage applied himself to the task with gusto. In 1923 the book was published as The Flora and Folklore of Shakespeare and to much acclaim: ‘… [the] style is readable and graceful … with [a] thoroughness and capacity born of real love for his subject’ wrote one reviewer; another suggests Savage had given ‘… the soundest estimate and ripest commentary this far attempted … that would have rejoiced Richard Jefferies, and W H Hudson, and Edward Thomas, apostles of Nature…’. Praise indeed. Later that year a second impression was published by the Shakespeare Press of Stratford.

Efforts were made by friends to provide financial relief to Savage following his book’s success. As kind as these efforts were, Savage played down his hardships and wrote to his friend Frederick Morgan: ‘… I am happy and comfortable and quite content to be a postman and money troubles me but little, all I want is sufficiency to keep going.’

Savage’s sixtieth birthday brought his retirement and the receipt of the Imperial Service Medal for thirty-five years as a postman. It also brought the news that his long-term illness – probably cancer – was both inoperable and terminal. A friend wrote that ‘… even when stricken by hopeless illness … [he met it with] calm courage and unflinching cheerfulness.’ Frederick Morgan recorded that Savage had ‘… willingly allowed the doctors at the hospital to experiment with radium upon his disease for the benefit of future sufferers.’

Prior to his death Savage donated his collection of old farming implements to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. It is believed his enormous collection of notes, made over his lifetime, were handed to the Reverend Bloom; if so, they were destroyed along with Bloom’s other papers in the London blitz.

Frederick Savage died at home on 18 October 1930. He is buried in Evesham Road Cemetery.