Henry Morton Stanley

Born John Rowlands in Wales on 28 January 1841, he reinvented himself as Henry Morton Stanley and crossed into journalism and exploration. His 1871 encounter with David Livingstone made him a household name, but the real work came after: tracing the sources of the Nile and Congo, then serving as Leopold II's agent in the Congo Basin, enabling the occupation that would stain both their names. He wrote bestselling accounts laced with tales of corporal punishment that earned him a reputation for cruelty, a sharp contrast to the saintly Livingstone he'd once tracked down. Knighted in 1897, he served as a Liberal Unionist MP for Lambeth North until 1900. He died 10 May 1904, leaving maps, books, and a controversy that never quite settled.