The Wikipedia article of the day for September 17, 2016 is Horatio Bottomley.
Horatio Bottomley (1860–1933) was an English financier, newspaper proprietor, Member of Parliament (MP), and swindler. Brought up in an orphanage, he began as an errand boy; his hard work enabled him, at 24, to found a publishing company through which he launched, among other titles, the Financial Times. As a financier his methods often brought him into conflict with the law, but by 1900 he had amassed a fortune as a promoter of shares in dubious gold-mining companies. Bottomley entered parliament as a Liberal Party MP in 1906, and founded John Bull magazine as a platform for his populist views. In 1912 he was declared bankrupt and forced to resign from parliament, but following the outbreak of war in 1914 he became a leading propagandist for the patriotic cause. In 1918, having been discharged from bankruptcy, he re-entered parliament and launched a fraudulent "Victory Bonds" scheme which led to his conviction and imprisonment in 1922. Released in 1927, he eked out a living with lectures and appearances in music halls, before his death in poverty.
No comments:
Post a Comment