Frank Castle Froëst was born in the West of England around 1858. He joined the Metropolitan Police as a police constable in 1879 and worked his way up to Inspector at Scotland Yard by 1894, Chief Inspector in 1903 and Superintendent of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from 1906 to his retirement in 1912. Working with the journalist George Dilnot, he wrote The Grell Mystery (1913), the story collection The Crime Club (1915) and The Rogues' Syndicate (1916). After his wife died in 1916, Frank moved into politics and was elected to Somerset County Council. He died in 1930.
