The Savage Family of Kuling, China and Worthing, Sussex: Missionaries of the Savage, Holms and McRoberts Families

Frederick J.T. Savage and his wife, Geraldine (née Holms), were two extraordinary people who devoted their lives to the people of China. They left England in 1913 and apart from four furloughs, they followed their lifelong work as missionaries in the Far East for the next 47 years, and it was only when Frederick was aged 72 did they retire from active field work and moved to Vancouver in Canada. Frederick Savage was a man of many talents, great strength and diplomacy. All these aspects of endurance were needed to continue his work and to get through the turmoil of the very troubled times in the unstable country of China. In 1913, the revolution of 1908-1912 had come to an end with a Republic being declared, when Frederick and his family moved to China after which there was 15 years of stability. However, in 1927, the Nationalist-Communist civil war broke out with fighting lasting for nearly two years. Then four years later, the Japanese capitalising on the weakness of China, started to invade from the north, beginning in 1931 and ending in 1945, they occupied virtually all the east coast and major tracts of the interior. Throughout all these troubles, Frederick and Geraldine brought up a family of six children. With the exception of one occasion in 1927 when the war situation became so dangerous whereby westerners were also being killed and they evacuated for the safety of their children, Frederick and Geraldine remained in China and toughed it out. One of the great hardships they endured was when the Japanese entered the Second World War in December 1941. Frederick and Geraldine with their four youngest children along with most of the Westerners on the side of the Allies in occupied China, were marched into concentration camps where they remained for up to four years. However, this did not deter them from carrying on with their missionary work in China after they were released in 1945. Far from it, through their son-in-law, Duncan McRoberts, they were active directors of the newly formed CNEC Mission in Shanghai, China, until they were forced to leave the mainland when the Communist regime took over in 1949. But still they did not abandon the Chinese people. They moved to Hong Kong and Singapore where they continued to minister to the Chinese of the region, most of who had fled from Communist China in 1949 or shortly after. To live and work under the extreme conditions of war and instability required great strength, courage and perseverance to continue with their convictions of being missionaries and at the same time organising and bringing up a family of six children including schooling them. Furthermore, Frederick Savage had seen many changes during his lifetime. He began his life in the Victorian times of London in 1888, when there were no motor cars, aeroplanes, computers, nuclear missiles, satellites, in existence, and moreover, in most homes there was no electricity. Likewise, Geraldine was brought up in a Victorian environment, but was born in 1892 to missionary parents in Brazil in South America and at the age of six, she was sent to be schooled at the Guinness’s home in London for the children of missionaries. Within China itself, general life in the hinterland was Medieval, with many diseases and logistical difficulties arising for most missionaries. The diseases such as malaria, typhoid etc., were prevalent in the summer months, and the Westerners rectified this by establishing summer retreats in the cooler climates of the mountains regions. One such retreat was established in 1895 by an Englishman in the Lushan Mountains to the north-west of Poyang Lake and was called Kuling. Here, Frederick and Geraldine married in 1915, and spent most summers recuperating for a month or two from their tireless work of missionary duties.