Savigny was born in
Upton, Worcestershire, the only son of William Henry Savigny (1792–1828), a Church of England vicar, and his wife Mary Anne Savigny, nḗe Cooksey (1800–1872). He graduated BA from
Worcester College, Oxford, and for a while taught in England, then in India. At some stage he was Vice-principal of the Collegiate School, Sheffield. In 1853 Savigny and his mother arrived in New South Wales, where in December 1853 he founded a grammar school in
Newcastle, also serving, without payment, as minister of
Christ Church Cathedral to early 1855. He moved his school to "Tempe", a mansion on Cooks River Road,
Cooks River, which commenced on On 24 July 1855. In 1857–8 he helped the Misses Cooksey establish a school for girls in "
Carthona", the historic home of Sir
Thomas Mitchell. He was succeeded at Cook's River in 1862 by Rev.
William Scott, previously Government Astronomer. :"Bay View House", his residence nearby, became a private
lunatic asylum. He served as Warden at
St Paul's (theological) College, and was in 1865 succeeded by Rev. Scott. He founded a Collegiate School in
Bathurst, New South Wales which commenced on 20 July 1865. In 1872 he left for
Launceston, Tasmania, where he succeeded the Rev.
W. A. Brooke as head of the
Church Grammar School. :This left Bathurst without a secondary school, and
Bishop Marsden, among others, founded what became
All Saints' College, which opened late in 1873 (
St Stanislaus' College was founded by the Roman Catholic church in September of that year). He retired in 1885 and died at his home, "Carthona", 37 Lyttleton Street, Launceston. ==Family==