In the novel Dumb Witness, General John Laverton Arundell is the long deceased father of Agnes, Arabella, Emily, Matilda and Thomas. He died in 1888, aged 69. He was buried in the churchyard in Market Basing, along with several of his daughters.
Emily remembered her father as a "domestic tyrant", with "charming manners". He shouted and bullied his daughters, but they were still proud of him because of his experiences in the Indian Mutiny and knowledge of the world. However, he drank, and there were days when he was "not quite so well".
After his death Emily found several empty brandy bottles in a Boule cabinet.