Richard Barham Middleton was born on the 28th October 1882 in Staines, Middlesex.

His education was primarily at Cranbrook School in Kent before he began work as a clerk, in 1901, at the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation in London. There he struggled with constraints and boundaries and by night he took to a bohemian lifestyle.

Middleton moved into rooms in Blackfriars and joined the New Bohemians club where his literary contacts grew.

He became an editor at Vanity Fair where he told a fellow editor, the notorious Frank Harris, that he wanted to pursue a career as a poet. Shortly afterwards Harris published Middleton’s poem ‘The Bathing Boy’.

As an author he is most remembered for his short ghost stories.

Richard Middleton died on 1st December 1911. He was 29.