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. (Full article...)