VISITORS to Newport are now able to learn about some of the city’s black sailors as they walk around the city.
HistoryPoints have put two new QR codes in the city which will provide users with information relating to some of the black sailors.
One of the codes is at the carpet shop on Charles Street, where visitors can find out about Tom Savage, an African sailor who settled in Newport in the 1900s. Born in Sierra Leone, Mr Savage was amember of the Kru tribe. He moved to Newport in 1917 and worked as a fireman and trimmer on merchant ships.
Tom Savage, a sailor from Sierra Leone who settled in Newport. Picture initially appeared in the South Wales Argus in 1919 and 1940
In 1921, he nearly died after being accidentally shot by a fellow seaman who picked up a loaded revolver. He married Maud Matilda Jones in 1933.
He died at the age of 49 in 1940 when his ship – the SS Cheldale – sunk after colliding with the Greystoke Castle ship off the coast of Durban.
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His last residence was the building which now houses the carpet shop. He is commemorated on both the Newport Merchant Navy Memorial and the Merchant Navy Memorial on Tower Hill. Learn more about him here: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=african-sailor-tom-savages-former-home-newport
The second is located at the entrance to AB Florist which was the site of a seamen’s lodgings in Pill. It is the first home of Mr Savage – who stayed there when he first arrived in Newport.
The link covers a number of the sailors who settled in the area and stayed at the lodge at some point in their lives. It was close to the docks which was convenient for many of the sailors and most settled in Pill after moving on from the lodges. Learn more here: https://historypoints.org/index.php?page=site-of-seamens-lodgings-pill-newport
The information was provided to HistoryPoints by Newport-based historian Rebecca Eversley-Dawes.
There are more than 2,000 of the QR codes across Wales which are able to be scanned by a smartphone and provide history of the particular place or landmark.
It is free to view the information on both the mobile and also on the website through desktop or laptop computers.
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