Small image of a man handing a book to a women across a counter.

At the Circulating Library

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

A Database of Victorian Fiction, 1837–1901

Author: A Flag Officer

Author: A Flag Officer (birth and death dates unknown)

Alternate Name(s): (pseudonym); George Augustus Elliot (legal name?)

Biography: This author cannot be traced. The only connection between “A Flag Officer” and naval officer Edward Hawker (1782–1860) is their shared pen name. The University of Texas has an inscribed copy of the novel to the author’s aunt Mary Anna Ness later passed to J. W. Percy (her nephew). Ness née Percy married Major James Burdett Ness in 1820. None of her brothers or sisters seemed to have children who entered the navy, all seemingly army bound. However, Ness’s sister-in-law Eliza Cecilia Ness married Adm. George Elliot (1784–1863) and their son is Adm. George Augustus Elliot (1813–1901). He did not become a flag officer until 1858, being only a captain in 1850. But he seems the only likely nephew of Ness with a connection to the navy to write such a book.

References: DNB; Probate

Fiction Titles:

  1. Arthur Montague: or, An Only Son at Sea.  3 vol.  London: Saunders and Otley, 1850.