THOMAS SAGE V.C

Born and bred in the town was Thomas Sage,  son of Thomas and Jessie Sage who, for many years, lived in Ham Place off St. Andrew's Street. His mother, and his sister Mabel, were lace workers and his father worked in the building trade.

Thomas won his VC on 4 October 1917 at Tower Hamlets Spur, just to the east of Ypres, Belgium. He was then 34 years old and serving as a Private in the 8th Battalion of the Somerset infantry. the award was gazetted 18 December 1917. The caption on his photograph in Tiverton Museum gives his rank as "Corporal" - presumably he was promoted after being decorated.

His citation reads:

"Thomas Sage, a private in the Somerset Light Infantry who in Belgium, on 4th October 1917 "was in a shell hole with eight other men, one of whom was shot while in the act of throwing a bomb. The live bomb fell into the shell hole and Private Sage, with great courage and presence of mind, immediately threw himself upon it, thereby undoubtedly  saving the lives of several of his comrades, though he himself sustained very serious wounds."

Thomas Sage was the son of another Thomas Sage who had been born in North America - the 1901 census says New York but it is possible that he was born in Canada. His father married Jessie Laura Osmond in the September Quarter of 1882 and Thomas Henry Sage's birth was registered in the following year. The birth of his sister Mabel in the December Quarter of 1886 completed the family.  By the time of the 1901 census, Thomas was working as a blacksmith's apprentice. Despite his awful wounds, he lived to return to Tiverton where he died in 1945. The location of his V.C is not known.

The headstone in Tiverton Cemetery also commemorates Thomas's wife - Evelyn Maud Sage.

For a photograph of Thomas Henry Sage go to the Tiverton Museum website at

www.tivertonmuseum.org.uk/tivvy_bumper/gallery-10.html