A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature/Whyte-Melville, George John
Whyte-Melville, George John (1821-1878).—Novelist, s. of a country gentleman of Fife, ed. at Eton, entered the army, and saw service in the Crimea, retiring in 1859 as Major. Thereafter he devoted himself to field sports, in which he was an acknowledged authority, and to literature. He wrote a number of novels, mainly founded on sporting subjects, though a few were historical. They include Kate Coventry, The Queen's Maries, The Gladiators, and Satanella. He also wrote Songs and Verses and The True Cross, a religious poem. He d. from an accident in the hunting-field.