Researching John Bartlett

Bartlett was educated in the Hunter Region and attended Newcastle Technical High School (now Merewether High School). He was awarded a BA, Dip. Ed and Dip. T.L by the University of Newcastle. He was a Councillor on Port Stephens Council for 16 years, including three years as Mayor, and was a librarian at Nelson Bay High School for 22 years. He was married with three children.

Bartlett represented Port Stephens for the Labor Party from 1999 to 2007. He died on 8 February 2008.

In 1983 Bartlett began to establish his name as a sports car driver in the British Thundersports series and the BRDC Sportscar Championship before moving into the World Championship in 1984 and running his own Group C2 team at Le Mans 24 Hour in 1984, 85 and 86.

John Bartlett raced sports prototype cars throughout most of his career, including Lola (T610), Chevron (B62), Bardon (DB1), Tiga, Spice and Porsche 966 (Group C & Group C2) in a career spanning some fourteen years. He also had a brief foray into the IMSA GT Championship in the US racing a Spice and at the Snetterton Willhire 24 Hours in 1991 winning class A driving a Ford Sierra RS Cosworth with Dave Mercer.

In his final season in 1993 Bartlett raced the Lola T89 Buick Indy car for the Star Union Team in the German Interserie championship.

John Bartlett now Managing Director of Maidstone Scuba School, is a Master Instructor training SCUBA divers.

In 2010 he completed his first novel Chequered Justice , published by Book Guild, a legal thriller alternating between the race track and the British justice system. In 2011 the Kindle eBook version of the book reached Number 1 in Amazon's best seller list for courtroom thrillers and in August 2013 it won a Book of the Day Award.

His second novel, Dark Horse (a prequel to Chequered Justice), was released in November 2012 by Amazing Journeys in print and as a Kindle eBook. In 2013, Leslie Phillips voiced an unabridged audio book edition of Chequered Justice along with Nick Ross, the former Crimewatch and Watchdog presenter, who guest voiced one section.

John Bartlett was born in Concord, Massachusetts in 1784 as the fourth of twelve children and as a youth was greatly influenced by his local pastor, Dr. Ripley. After working with a relative in commerce in Maine, Bartlett returned to Massachusetts and graduated from Harvard College in 1805. Bartlett then studied theology for two years in Cambridge and then became chaplain of the Boston Almshouse, which cared for poor residents of Boston. Bartlett remained as a chaplain from 1807 to 1811 and during this period studied theology further under William Ellery Channing. Bartlett also studied medicine, although he never intended to be practicing physician, but thought the education useful in his work with the impoverished. After observing the conditions of the poor at the Almshouse, Bartlett visited the hospitals in New York and Philadelphia and researched the newest medical methods. Bartlett then organized two meetings of prominent physicians and wealthy benefactors, one meeting resulted in the founding of McLean Insane Hospital and the other resulted in the creation of Massachusetts General Hospital. In 1811 Bartlett was ordained as pastor of the Second Congregational Church in Marblehead, Massachusetts, where he held to a Unitarian theology. Also in 1811, Bartlett married, Rebecca Dublois, daughter of George and Sarah Dublois, and they eventually had six children together. He was an active member of the Marblehead Humane Society and Freemasons. Bartlett died in 1849 at age sixty-five after several personal tragedies.