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In memoriam

Second Lieutenant Thomas John Savage

 

 

 

Thomas John Savage, son of Robert and Martha Savage of Larne, Country Antrim, enlisted as a Private in the North Irish Horse (Service No.999) on 13 August 1914. He embarked for France just seven days later with C Squadron. On 26 March 1918 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Battalion, Rifle Brigade. He was killed in action on 11 October 1918, and is buried at St Aubert British Cemetery, Nord, France, grave I.A.36. The gravestone inscription reads:

SECOND LIEUTENANT

THOMAS JOHN SAVAGE

THE RIFLE BRIGADE

11TH OCTOBER 1918

BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH

AND I WILL GIVE THEE

A CROWN OF LIFE

REV.2.10

 

The newspaper image above from the Belfast Evening Telegraph was accompanied by the following article:

LARNE MAN AT THE FRONT.
INTERESTING LETTERS HOME.

Mr. Tom Savage, of Larne, an old member of the North Irish Horse, who rejoined at the outbreak of the war, and is now at the front, has written a couple of interesting letters to his relatives. In the first one, which was written on a transport ship, the writer deals light-heartedly with his journey and the prospects in front of him. “I’ll be able to ‘swank French’ when I come back,” runs one passage, and further on he mentions that he has got two very nice chums, Jack Wright, the footballer, who has seen service before, and Billy Caughey, both of Belfast.

 

Gravestone image kindly provided by Steve Rogers, Project Co-ordinator of the The War Graves Photographic Project, www.twgpp.org. Image of Thomas Savage from the Belfast Evening Telegraph, kindly provided by Nigel Henderson (see Fitzroy Presbyterian Church: Wartime Service and Sacrifice).