Author: James Oscar Bagdon
Author: James Oscar Bagdon (1833–1921)
Alternate Name(s): A Resident of the Last Three Years (pseudonym); Bagdon Hunt (alternate name)
Biography: James Oscar Bagdon was born on 7 April 1833 in Tenterden, the son of prosperous farmer George Bagdon. In the 1850s, he spent time in Demerara where he married Elizabeth Louisa Williams, a woman sixteen years his senior. On the return to England, he graduated from King's College, London before being ordained as a clergyman in the Church of England. Thereafter, he held positions in Homerton, Wokingham, and Constantinople. Based on his experiences, he wrote a novel The Tcherkess and his Victim: Sketches Illustrative of the Moral, Social, and Political Aspects of Life in Constantinople (1880) under the pseudonym "A Resident of the Last Three Years." His identity was revealed after a criminal charge of libel was taken against him by an official depicted in the novel. (It seems the case was eventually dropped.). He married twice more. He died on 20 May 1921 in Meopham, Kent.
Author Tags:
References: Belfast Telegraph (12 February 1881); British Census (1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1911); Probate
Fiction Titles:
- The Tcherkess and his Victim: Sketches Illustrative of the Moral, Social, and Political Aspects of Life in Constantinople. 1 vol. London: John Hodges, 1880.