Regiment: Royal Sussex, 1st/4th Battalion, 53rd Division
Service No: TF/2000
Date & place of birth: Midhurst, April-June 1885
Date & place of death: 12 August 1915 (aged 30), Gallipoli
Private Arthur Henry Savage is the only Petworth man known to have been killed in the disastrous Gallipoli expedition of 1915.
Family background
Arthur Savage was one of many in Petworth born to parents working for the Leconfield Estate. In 1901 his parents were living in the well-known landmark of Monument Lodge near Upperton; his father was a gamekeeper and parkkeeper. By the time of Arthur’s death they had moved to Tripp Hill, Sutton. Arthur had one sister, Ethel. In 1911 he was himself working as a Leconfield Estate gamekeeper and living alone at Buckfold Cottages.
Military service
Arthur enlisted in Horsham to the Royal Sussex. As Gallipoli was such a killing field, it must be assumed only certain divisions of the Royal Sussex were sent there, or surely more Petworth men would have been killed, as so many were enlisted in the Regiment.
Death and commemoration
Arthur was killed in action at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 12 August 1915, in the middle of the Dardanelles Campaign (April 1915 to Jan 1916.) Although best remembered for the number of Anzac troops that died (approximately 11,000) many more from Britain were killed (34,000). Arthur Savage is also commemorated on the Sutton Parish War Memorial (as his parents were living there by then) and on the Helles memorial, Gallipoli MR.4.