People Australia

Alexander Edward (Les) Savage (1896-1989) postal lineman and trade union official

Birth: 16 February 1896 at Peak Hill, New South Wales, son of native-born parents George William Savage (1869-1943), farmer, and Margaret Jane, née Martin (1873-1908). Marriages: (1) 21 January 1921 at Melbourne, Victoria, to Margaret Crossley Appleyard (1885-1921), born at Halifax, Yorkshire, England. She died giving birth to their son. (2) 25 October 1924 at Melbourne to Elsie Alfreda Lansley (1890-1979), a dressmaker. They had a daughter and one son. Death: 25 November 1989 at West Heidelberg, Melbourne. Religion: Anglican [on service record]. 

• Family lived at Mooroopna, Victoria, in Les’s childhood and moved to Tullamore, NSW, about 1907.
• As Leslie Savage, a farm labourer, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Euroa, Victoria, on 4 January 1915. Served at Gallipoli with the 13th Australian Light Horse Regiment. Was wounded in action (gunshot wound to right shoulder) serving as a sapper with the 5th Divisional Signalling Company in France on 27 October 1917. Returned to Australia in 1919 and was discharged in Melbourne on 29 June 1919.
• Was a lineman in the Postmaster-General’s (PMG) Department from the 1920s. Later foreman, grade 2.
• Was executive member from 1936 of the Postal Workers’ Union, Victorian branch; representative of Linemen’s Group, Victorian branch, vice-president, president 1942, assistant secretary 1943.
• Supported by the Australian Labor Party industrial group, Savage succeeded Joe Peterken as secretary-treasurer of the Amalgamated Postal Workers' Union in September 1947. He held office until 1961 (retired).
• Representative on Promotions Appeal Committee. Delegate to Trades Hall Council. Delegate to Australian Labor Party conferences. Delegate to Annual Conference in 1943 and 1944, continuously from 1947.
• Retired from the PMG on 16 February 1956. Was awarded British Empire Medal in December 1960.
• Cause of death: acute pulmonary edema (3 hours), congestive cardiac failure (1 month) and cancer of colon (weeks).
• His brother Henry George Patrick Savage (1899-1918), farm hand, enlisted in the AIF on 5 July 1917 and was killed in action serving with the 35th Battalion in France on 4 April 1918.

Sources
Frank Waters [Denis Murphy ed], Postal unions and politics: a history of the Amalgamated Postal Workers Union of Australia (St Lucia, 1978); Postal Advocate, 21 March 1954.