United Kingdom

William Ernest Henley

1849–1903

Born in Gloucester in 1849, Henley had tuberculosis of the bone from childhood and lost a leg, spending long periods in hospital. His poem “Invictus” (“I am the master of my fate, / I am the captain of my soul”) became the best-known statement of English stoicism: courage, pain and will, without self-pity. He was also an influential editor and the model for Long John Silver. He died in 1903.