Savory’s second wife, Georgiana, was a talented singer and often sang at concerts:
Bazaars, concerts and entertainments of all kinds were undertaken by the parishioners [for the refurbishment of the church], a sum of £376 being raised by these means. Among them a bazaar at Badsey realised £130; another, later, at Aldington in one of my old barns, £80; and two concerts – afternoon and evening – at Malvern, organised by my wife and her sister, Miss Poulton, £100.
In another chapter he goes on to say:
Among Aldington’s amusements no account would be complete without a reference to the numerous concerts and entertainments for charitable objects which my wife organised, and in which her musical talent enabled her to take a prominent part; and although I feel some hesitation in dealing with so personal a matter, I am certain that many of those who co-operated with her in the organisation and the performance of these affairs will be pleased to have their recollections of her own part in them revived.
She possessed a natural soprano voice of great sweetness and flexibility, in combination with the sympathetic ability and clear enunciation which add so much to the charm of vocal expression. She was not allowed to begin singing, in earnest, before she was nineteen, for fear of straining so delicate a voice, and she then had the advantage of the tuition of Signor Carvoglia, one of the most celebrated teachers of the time. Signor Carvoglia only consented to teach her on the express condition that she would not sing in choruses, on account of the danger of strain and over-exertion. She practised regularly, chiefly exercises, two hours a day in separate half hours. Her talent was soon recognised at Malvern, where she lived before her marriage, and her assistance was in great demand for amateur charity concerts.
I have a book full of newspaper reports of my wife’s performances, containing notices of concerts at Malvern repeatedly, Kidderminster, Worcester, at Birmingham under the auspices of the Musical Section of the Midland Institute – a very great honour before a highly critical audience – Alcester, Pershore, Moreton-in-Marsh, Evesham, Broadway, Badsey, Wallingford, and a great many villages in the Evesham district.
Georgina Ford Poulton was born at Reading in 1858, the youngest of three children of William Ford Poulton, an architect, and his wife, Georgina Selina (née Bagnall). She grew up in Reading but, in the mid 1880s she moved with her parents to Beechworth, Malvern, when William retired.
On 20th October 1885 at St Mary, Great Malvern, Georgina married widower Arthur Herbert Savory, tenant farmer at Aldington Manor House and Farm, becoming step-mother to his 11-year-old daughter, Cynthia. Georgina and Arthur had presumably met on the Poulton family’s move to Worcestershire. Like her sister, Selina, she was an accomplished singer, and both sisters gave a concert in 1885 in aid of the Badsey Church restoration fund.
Arthur and Georgina had two children: Christopher Arthur Francis (1887-1899) and Dorothy Joyce (1891-1934). Christopher unfortunately died of influenza, aged 13, whilst at school in Worcester in 1899.
In 1901, Arthur and Georgina were still at The Manor House with Cynthia and Dorothy, but they left Aldington shortly after returned to Arthur’s native Hampshire. At the time of the 1911 census, Arthur was living at Burley, Hampshire; Georgina was a patient in a nursing home on Port Street, Evesham, run by Jane Beesley.
Arthur died on 17th July 1921 at Burley and Georgina died just over ten years later at Burley on 8th October 1931, aged 73.