Savage was born on 21 February 1906 in Edinburgh, Scotland,[1] to Richard Akinwande Savage Sr, a Nigerian medical doctor, newspaper publisher and a 1900 Edinburgh graduate of Sierra Leone Creole descent and Maggie S. Bowie, a working-class Scotswoman.[1] Her brother was Richard Gabriel Akinwande Savage, also a doctor who graduated from Edinburgh in 1926.[1] Savage passed exams to the Royal College of Music in 1919 and was given a scholarship to study at George Watson's Ladies College.[1] There, she received an award for General Proficiency in Class Work and passed the Scottish Higher Education Leaving Certificate.[1][2][3]