Vane Ireton Shaftesbury St John (19 August 1838 - 20 December 1911)[1] was a writer of boys' stories and Penny dreadful popular serial literature.
He worked as a clerk for the Inland Revenue before taking up writing full time.
He edited a series of boys' stories named Young Men of Great Britain.
In 1880, while living in Margate, he pawned all his clothes, and wrapped himself up in a sheet while he wrote his stories.
In January 1875, he married Margaret Chilcott, 20 years his junior, and they had 14 children, of which four died in infancy.