The city family who left for a new life but died on the Titanic

Sage family

Peterborough Civic Society has chosen 15 new sites for its popular blue plaques scheme. Each week, Looking Back will feature the stories behind the new plaques, as told by the civic society.

This plaque is located on the wall next to the front door of the Gladstone District Community Association offices on the corner of Taverners Roadand Gladstone Street.

JohnGeorgeSagewasborn in Stamford Hill, Hackney, London, on October 13 1867 and was married in St John’s Church, Hackney, in November 1890 to Annie Elizabeth Cazaly (b. 1865), a native of Wolverhampton, Staffordshire.

Jh Johnandhisfamily dhi f il moved d to Norfolk sometime around the turn of the 20th century where he became a publican and ran the New Inn in Gaywood, King’s Lynn.

The family appeared at that address on the 1901 census.

By 1910 the family had moved to Peterborough, to 246 Gladstone Street, to run a baker’s and confectioner’s b business.

But it wasn’t long before John decided on another career change. Leaving Annie in charge of the bakery, he and their eldest son George went to Canada.

They worked as waiters in t the dining cars of the Canadian Pacific Railway, but also found time to visit Florida. Here John put a deposit on a farm in Jacksonville, and returned hometoPeterborough in the autumn of 1911 to prepare the family for the move. It is believedthattherestofthe family were not enthusiastic about it.

In April 1912 they left the UK on board the Titanic, to start anewlife in Jacksonville, Florida, as pecan farmers.

Theyhadintendedtosailto