Auction: 323 - The Numismatic Collector's Series Sale
Lot: 763
Three: Major Arthur Savage, Royal Field Artillery, Later Intelligence Officer, Dublin District
1914-15 Star (Major A.R.B. Savage. R.F.A.); British War and Victory Medals (Major A.R.B. Savage.), nearly extremely fine, all in named card boxes of issue (3)
Major Arthur Raymond Boscawen Savage, was born in July 1868, the son of Colonel Henry Savage, 91st Foot, and was educated at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Commissioned Second Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery in July 1887, he was promoted Lieutenant in July 1890; served as Adjutant from November 1894; and was promoted Captain in April 1898. Promoted Major in July 1903, reports were soon received of his unfitness to command and addiction to alcohol, and he was called upon to retire. Transferring to the Reserve of Officers in May 1906, he was called up for service on the outbreak of the Great War, and served with the 126th Brigade, Royal Field Artillery on the Western Front from July 1915, before being transferred to a Reserve Brigade at home. Transferred to the unemployed list on account of ill health, caused no doubt by alcoholism, in June 1918, he moved to Ireland, where he was appointed an Intelligence Officer in the Dublin District, Royal Field Artillery. However, he was forced to retire following further reports against him from Dublin Castle and the Royal Irish Constabulary. Applying to join the Auxiliary Division of the Royal Irish Constabulary, a paramilitary organisation within the R.I.C. composed of ex-British officers who had formerly served in the Great War, his application was accepted, only for him to die, before he could take up the post, on the 18th May 1921, of alcoholism. He is buried in Grangegorman Military Cemetery, Dublin, under a Commonwealth War Graves Commission headstone.
Sold for
$800