Richard Gabriel Akinwande Savage

Major Richard Gabriel Akinwande Savage (1903–1993) was a medical doctor, soldier, and the first person of West African heritage to receive a British Army commission.[1]

Richard Gabriel Akinwande Savage
Born1903
Edinburgh, Scotland
Died1993(1993-00-00) (aged 89–90)
Nationality
Occupation
  • Physician
  • Military officer
Parent(s)
RelativesAgnes Yewande Savage (sister)

Early life and family

He was born in 1903 at 15 Buccleugh Place, in Edinburgh, Scotland, of mixed ancestry to the prominent Nigerian doctor Richard Akinwande Savage of Sierra Leone Creole descent, who married a Scotswoman, Maggie Bowie.[1][2] His sister, Agnes Yewande Savage, also played a pioneering role as the first West African woman to qualify as a medical doctor.[3]

Education

Savage studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduated (MB, ChB)[1] in 1926, qualified in 1927, and received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant on 23 September 1940, making him the first West African to be commissioned an officer in the British Army (Seth Anthony of Ghana, has been incorrectly referenced as the first West African to receive a commission in the British Army).[1] In September 1941, Savage was promoted to the rank of Captain.[1] He served as a medical doctor in the Asian Theater of World War II, specifically in Burma, where he tended to wounded soldiers from Britain's contingent. Among the soldiers that Savage treated in Burma was Isaac Fadoyebo, a wounded Nigerian soldier in the Royal West African Frontier Force, who recounted the quality of care that Savage provided to him and other West African soldiers.[4]

Later life

He, like his father, also married a Scottish woman. And retired to Scotland, having found Africa "vexing".

References
  1. Keazor, Ed. "Tracking Captain Savage: The Forgotten Pioneer of African Military History". Nsibidi Institute. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  2. "CAS Students to Lead Seminar On University's African Alumni, Pt. IV: Agnes Yewande Savage". University of Edinburgh - Center for African Studies Postgraduate Students Blog. Retrieved 23 December 2016.
  3. Patton, Adell (1996). Physicians, Colonial Racism, and Diaspora in West Africa. University Press of Florida, 1996. p. 28. ISBN 9780813014326. Retrieved 5 March 2016. agnes yewande savage.
  4. Phillips, Barnaby (14 October 2014). Another Man's War: The Story of a Burma Boy in Britain's Forgotten Army. Oneworld Publications, 2014. ISBN 9781780745237. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
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