Savage, Albert

Private Albert Savage was born in England and living in Canada when the war started. He returned to the UK and enlisted with the Royal Army Service Corps, serving with them for four years.

Albert was born in 1888 or 1889 in Birmingham, Warwickshire, England. He immigrated to Canada around 1911 and lived in Regina, Saskatchewan for three years, working for the railroad. In February 1914 he made a trip home to the UK. He returned to Canada two months later, arriving from Liverpool on 23 April on the SS Virginian, his destination listed as Kenora, Ontario where he planned to work for the CPR. He travelled both ways with another railway employee, John Poole. Like Albert, John was born in England and lived in Regina for three years before moving to Kenora.

When the war started Albert went home to England to enlist. He signed up in Birmingham in May 1915, joining the Mechanical Transport section of the Royal Army Service Corps. He was sent to France in June 1915. That fall he spent some time in No. 6 Stationary Hospital in Le Havre, due to illness. He was admitted to the hospital on 4 September and he was serving with No. 366 Company RASC at the time. No. 366 had been formed in May 1915 as an auxiliary transport company that used steam-driven vehicles.

The Armistice ended hostilities in November 1918 and Albert was discharged in early 1919. He was awarded the 1914-1915 Star and the British War and Victory Medals. He returned to Canada in August on the SS Caronia in a group of repatriated soldiers. His destination was listed as Winnipeg but he settled in Kenora, returning to work for the CPR and living for awhile at the Railway YMCA.

In the spring of 1921 Albert went home to England for a two month visit. He arrived back in Canada on 16 June on the Empress of France, which sailed from Birmingham to Quebec. He was listed as an engineer, age 31, going to Kenora. On the same ship were two sisters, Olive Eliza and Dorothea Eva Rudd. They were both born in Great Barr, Staffordshire, Dorothea in 1898 and Olive in 1900, and they were on their way to Montreal to join their brother Horace. The following spring Albert travelled to Montreal and married Dorothea. The wedding took place on 20 April 1922 at Christ Church in Montreal and Dorothea’s sister Olive was one of the witnesses.

Albert and his wife made their home in Kenora and they had two daughters, Lyndsay and Patricia. Albert had a long career with the CPR and he became a member of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen. He also joined the Kenora branch of the Canadian Legion and the Masonic Lodge Pequonga Chapter. Dorothea had another sister, Elsie, who married local war veteran Charles Alfred Clark and they also settled in Kenora.

Albert passed away around Remembrance Day in 1954, at age 65. His funeral was held on 15 November. Dorothea died in Dundas, Ontario on 13 March 1982. They are both buried in Angel Crest Block at Lake of the Woods Cemetery in Kenora.

By Becky Johnson

Card of Thanks and obituary are from the Kenora Miner and News

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