Thread by @WillJMeddings

On 31 Jan we said farewell to Captain Raymond Savage.

A veteran of the #Leicestershire Regiment, he fought in Norway, Malaya, and Singapore before building the Thai-Burma railway.

When he died at 102 last year he was known as 'the last man standing' - for many reasons.
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Each year for Tigers Weekend Raymond would attend the service, march past and lunch in #Leicester. This involved him driving from Devon to Leicester and back the same day. He did this well into his nineties.

But of course his amazing story deserve to be told from the start.

Raymond Savage joined The Artists' Rifles in 1937 and was commissioned into The Leicestershire Regiment in 1939.

He commanded a platoon in Norway in April 1940. The British defence of Norway did not go well. “There was a rather one-sided fight,” said Raymond.

“We did fight back; there is a #Leicestershire Regiment cemetery at #Lillehammer. It has the graves of 16 members of the regiment killed in the fighting.”

They divided into small groups. Raymond reached Sweden on skis and was interned before returning to the UK via Finland.

He then served at the Infantry Training Centre in #Leicester, before joining the 1st Bn in Malaya in late 1941.

He took part in the fighting against the Japanese invasion, attached to HQ 15th Inf Bde as Brigade Liaison Officer.

After the Battle of Kampar the remnants of the #Leicestershire Regiment and the 2nd East Surreys joined together to form the British Battalion, whose 80th anniversary we celebrated on 20 December 2021.

Raymond was taken prisoner at Singapore on its surrender in February 1942

From there, it got tougher. Raymond was incarcerated in Changi Jail before being taken north in cattle trucks to build the Thai-Burma railway. 

He was released from POW camp in the Far East in 1945 - three years later.

Raymond went on to have a great career at Kraft Foods. Working for years in corporate hospitality, one of the boxes at Cheltenham Racecourse gained the nickname the 'Raymond Savage Box'. 
@KraftHeinzCo @CheltenhamRaces

@KraftHeinzCo @CheltenhamRaces So why 'the last man standing'?

Following research in Norway, it was discovered he was the last survivor of the British defence of Norway in 1940. In June 2017 he was awarded a diploma and medallion by the Norwegian Chief of Defence.
@Forsvarsdep

@KraftHeinzCo @CheltenhamRaces @Forsvarsdep Raymond was also last known survivor of the British Battalion and the last known member of the #Leicestershire Regiment to have been a Japanese PoW.

His funeral was on Monday 31 January 2022.

He was indeed 'The Last Man Standing'.

I’ve just nipped into the Mess because I knew we had this on the wall - the roll of honour of the #British Battalion.

You can’t quite make it out, but Raymond’s name is near the top left.

And if you want to know more about legendary soldiers, here’s a thread about RSM J C Lord 👇🏼

https://twitter.com/willjmeddings/status/1474039674696081412