The Passenger from Calais

Over 60 novels were written and published by British military officer and novelist Arthur George Frederick Griffiths (9 December 1838 - 24 March 1908) throughout his lifetime. Along with being a military historian and former military writer for The Times, he also wrote extensively about the wars of the 19th century. Griffiths, the second son of Lieutenant-Colonel John Griffiths of the 6th Royal Warwickshire regiment, was born on December 9th, 1838 in Poona, India. On February 13, 1855, Arthur Griffiths enlisted in the British Army as an ensign in the 63rd Regiment of Foot following his graduation from King William's College on the Isle of Man. Griffiths, a Crimean War soldier, took part in the Sevastopol siege. He participated in the Battle of Kinbum and was awarded the British Crimea medal. His later descriptions of crime and punishment in England were ""sensational and grotesque,"" meant to pique his Victorian audience's baser interests.