Tauranga Savage Club (Organisation)

First committee:

H. Butts, J.W. Carleton, D.H.L. Corrigan, T. Dickson, A. Litherland, C.E. Macmillan (President), Captain Gilbert Mair, B.C. Robbin (Secretary), Dr T. Stuart, H. Valentine, H.E. Vokes (Treasurer), W. Walker, G. Wills.

Other founder and early members:

John Cuthbert Adams, J. Daines, W.H. Gifford, J.R. Page, Horatio Gordon Robley, Bernard Sladden, Vice Rangitira Wills (voted chair in 1924).

Timeline:

1921 Jan: Meeting convened for those interested in forming a local Savage Club at Mr Meadow's rooms, Security Buildings, deciding to 'form an Orphans Club'.

1921 Jun: Decision to form a Savage Club, 'Messrs Wills, Corrigan, Valentine, W.R.C. Walker and H.H. McCarthy, with Mr J.G. Green as secretary pr tem, were appointed a committee to draw up rules, etc., and report to a further meeting to be held on Saturday July 2'.

1922 May: AGM: Captain Mair elected president, membership approximately 60.

1923: General Gordon Robley elected life member. Gilbert Mair wrote that Robley "at the many State and public functions which he attends, he always proudly wears the T.S.C. monogram, which is considered unique, and attracts much attention."

It is not clear when the Club closed but by May 1934 twenty orchestra members were rehearsing in anticipation of the formation of an Orphans' Club in Tauranga, with Mr A.B. Wood, Secretary, pro tem.

Advertisement in the Bay of Plenty Times, 26 April 1934, p. 3.

1934: New Zealand Association of Kindred Clubs (Orphans and Savages), reported 25 affiliated clubs, 18 ophans' and 17 savage clubs.

International: The Savage Club was founded in London in 1857 as a 'gentlemen's club' for those working in literature or arts, later expanded to include professions of law and science. In 2025 some Savage Clubs only permit women as guests at certain times. 

In 2010 The SaVĀge K'lub was created by Sistar S’pacific, aka Rosanna Raymond, to subvert 'the original club’s elitist and racist stereotypes, bringing together Pacific artists', growing to a collective of chapters worldwide by 2024.