A. Bertram Chandler

Arthur Bertram Chandler (28 March 1912 – 6 June 1984) was a British-Australian science fiction author, writing under his own name and the pseudonyms George Whitley, George Whitely, Andrew Dunstan, and S.H.M.

Biography

He was born in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. He was a merchant marine officer, sailing the world in everything from tramp steamers to troop ships. In 1956, he emigrated to Australia and became an Australian citizen. He commanded various ships in the Australian and New Zealand merchant navies, and was the last master of the Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne as the law required that it have an officer on board while it was laid up waiting to be towed to China to be broken up.

Writings

Chandler wrote over 40 novels and 200 works of short fiction. He won Ditmar Awards for the short story "The Bitter Pill" (in 1971) and for three novels: False Fatherland (in 1969), The Bitter Pill (in 1975), and The Big Black Mark (in 1976).