Richard Gabriel Akiwande Savage

Richard Gabriel Akiwande Savage was a pioneering doctor and army officer. He was born in Edinburgh in 1903 to a Nigerian father and Scottish mother. Following in his father's footsteps, Richard also studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, graduating in 1926. 

In 1940 Richard Gabriel Akiwande Savage was called up for service in the war. He became the first person of West African descent to be commissioned as an officer in the British army in the Second World War, despite being initially demoted because of his heritage.

Richard Gabriel Akiwande Savage served as a medical doctor in Burma (Myanmar) where he tended to Allied soldiers and was commended on his compassion for his patients. He was awarded an OBE.

Following war service Richard Gabriel Akiwande Savage became the medical officer at the Enugu Colliery in Nigeria. On retirement he returned to the UK where he split his time between Hounslow, England and Edinburgh, Scotland. He died in Hounslow in 1993.

Richard Gabriel Akiwande Savage's father, Richard Akiwande Savage also attended Edinburgh Medical School and graduated in 1900. His sister, Agnes Yewande Smith Bowie Savage, graduated from Edinburgh Medical School in 1929 and was the first West African woman to qualify in medicine.

Agnes Yewande Savage