His father was Welsh, a special commissioner to the West Indies, charged with setting up an educational system for the slaves emancipated in 1834.

[2][dubious – discuss] Eleven years later he sold it and bought a coffee plantation in Jamaica.

[3] Six years later, he patented a lever-action rifle able to shoot then-modern guncotton military center-fire cartridges with .303-caliber spitzer bullets.

[2] The modern removable box magazine often seen on military rifles was invented in 1908 by Savage, as an improvement to the Model 99.

Savage collaborated on the invention of the Savage-Halpine torpedo,[8] which was eventually adopted by the Brazilian navy.

[2][9] Savage formed another gun company with his son, Arthur John, in 1917, but this also failed.

Savage tried a number of other occupations before his death, including oil drilling, gold mining, pipe, brick and ceramics.

Faced with a slow and painful death, Arthur Savage died by suicide at the age of 81, on September 22, 1938, in San Diego,[10] while still director of his successful tire company.