Tom Bevan

Born in Risca, Monmouthshire, in 1868, Tom Bevan was educated at Sir Thomas Rich’s School in Gloucester and St Paul’s College, Cheltenham. Before becoming a full-time man of letters, he worked as a schoolmaster in Hertfordshire, and that classroom experience seems to have helped shape his clear, direct style for younger readers.

Bevan wrote a large number of adventure stories and historical tales for boys, and he also published under the pseudonym Walter Bamfylde. His fiction was especially associated with historical settings and imperial-era adventure, while some records also note that he wrote non-fiction for children.

Reference sources for his life do not all agree on the exact year of his death, with some giving 1937 and others 1938. What is clear is that he was a prolific British author whose work found a wide readership in the early twentieth century and who remains of interest to readers of classic children’s and adventure fiction.