Transcription of obituary published in the Minutes of Conference
CHARLES SAVIDGE: born in Cambridge on 16th September 1905, the fourth child in a family of seven of a local policeman who later became an inspector in the Cambridge City Force. Charles was a scholar at a local elementary school leaving at fourteen years of age to work in the office at Christ’s College, later moving to work in the office at Chivers Jam Factory at Histon. While working at Christ’s he took a keen interest in rowing and became the stroke of the College Servants’ Boat, winning his oars in the year the boat won the Head of the River in the local town races. His other main interest was music, and he became an accomplished pianist and a useful organist, a gift which was frequently exercised in retirement in various churches in the Cambridge Circuit. He was an avid reader all his life and made regular use of the local library.
The Savidge family was associated with Sturton Street Primitive Methodist Church, and Charles took an active part in many church activities. He was a choir member and a Sunday School teacher. He responded to a call to the ministry, received his training at Hartley Victoria College, and after three years on the President’s List, served in the following circuits: Bristol (Kingswood), Wiltshire Mission, lpswich (Rope Walk), Lowton, Rhondda (Ely Valley), East Cornwall Mission, Haworth and Oakworth, Llanymynech (for twelve years) and Netherton.
In 1973 he was on the verge of breakdown which enforced retirement. He returned to Cambridge to live with a sister who was recently widowed. Charles never married, and in one sense was a ‘loner’. He was greatly loved by the people amongst whom he counted it a privilege to serve. His mode of transport throughout his ministry was a bicycle, and he preached regularly throughout the Cambridge Circuit until a few months before he died.
After a prolonged illness he passed peacefully away on 6th October 1989, in the Arthur Rank House in Cambridge, in the eighty-fifth year of his age and the fifty-sixth year of his ministry.
Family
Charles was born on 16 September 1905 at Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, to parents Leonard Savidge, a police constable (1911), and Clara Cundell.
Charles died on 6 October 1989 at Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.
Circuits
- Hartley
- 1934 President’s List
- 1937 Bristol Kingsway
- 1940 Wilts Mission
- 1943 Ipswich Rope W
- 1946 Lowton
- 1949 Rhondda Vall E
- 1952 E Cornwall Mision
- 1955 Haworth &c
- 1959 Llanmynech
- 1971 Netherton
- 1973 Cambridge (S)
References
Methodist Minutes 1990/42
W Leary, Directory of Primitive Methodist Ministers and their Circuits, 1990
Census Returns and Births, Marriages & Deaths Registers
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