Henry Dunant

Born in Geneva on 8 May 1828 to a devout Calvinist family, Dunant was a businessman with interests in French Algeria and Tunisia when a detour changed everything. In 1859, traveling to petition Napoleon III, he arrived at Solferino in northern Italy just after battle and found thousands of wounded soldiers abandoned without care. Horrified, he rallied locals to tend the dying regardless of side. Back in Geneva he published A Memory of Solferino, calling for a neutral organization to care for the war-wounded. In February 1863 he joined a five-person committee that became the International Commi…