Montague T. (Montague Thomas) Hainsselin

Born in Stoke Damerel, Devon, in 1871, Montague Thomas Hainsselin was an English clergyman and author who studied at Plymouth Grammar School and later served as a chaplain in the Royal Navy. Reference sources identify him with the vicarage at Exminster, and several of his books draw directly on his naval experience.

He is best known for wartime works such as In the Northern Mists, Grand Fleet Days, and Naval Intelligence, which offer vivid, personal views of naval service during the First World War. His writing stands out for its close observation of ordinary sailors as well as officers, giving his books the feel of lived history rather than distant military summary.

Hainsselin also wrote fiction. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction notes him for The Island of Maids (1908), a lost-world romance about a hidden all-female society in the Mediterranean. He died in 1943, leaving behind a body of work that joins naval memoir, reportage, and imaginative adventure.