Bartimeus (1886 - 1967)

The author was born Lewis Anselm da Costa Ricci in 1886; he anglicised his name to Ritchie and trained to become a naval officer. While still young, he contracted Malta Fever (brucellosis); this cost him the sight of one eye and damaged the other. Unable now to pursue a career at sea, he remained in the Navy, in the accounting branch, but began writing stories about naval life. He took his pen-name from the Bible, ironically hinting at his reason for leaving the career he loved by naming himself after Bartimeus, the blind beggar of Mark 10, 46-52.