Elliott O'Donnell was an English author best known for his tales about ghosts. He claimed to have seen a ghost when he was five years old, describing it as an elemental creature with spots. He also claimed to have been strangled by a mystery ghost in Dublin (but no serious damage seemed to have occurred). He was born in Clifton (near Bristol), England, the son of Reverend Henry O'Donnell (1827-1873), an Irishman, and Englishwoman Elizabeth Mousley (née Harrison); he had three older siblings: Henry O'Donnell, Helena O'Donnell, and Petronella O'Donnell. The Rev. Henry O'Donnell traveled to Abyssinia after the birth of his fourth child to await preferment to a new parish. He intended to take entry examinations at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst in order to join the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC), but instead traveled to the United States, working on some cattle range in Oregon and becoming a police officer during the Chicago Railway Strike of 1894. Returning to England on the SS Elbe, he worked as a schoolmaster before training for drama at the Henry Neville Studio on Oxford Street. In 1905, he married Ada O'Donnell (1870-1937) and enlisted in the British army during World War I, later appearing on stage and in films.