Frederick Joseph De Verteuil was born in Trinidad in 1887. He lived with his maternal grandparents in Port of Spain, attended St. Mary's College and went to England at the age of fourteen in 1901 and later qualified as a lawyer at Gray's Inn. He practiced as a barrister in India for several years and later returned to England where he continued practising law until he was debarred from practice due to misrepresenting his clients in court. He then became a little known writer of novels and short stories, historical works and semi-scientific commentaries. He wrote under three different pseudonyms: John Dellbridge, Freddy Bannister and Francis Vere.