Henry Du Pré Labouchère

(1831 - 1912)

After working in the British diplomatic service for ten years, with postings in Washington, DC, St. Petersburg, and Constantinople, Henry Du Pré Labouchère in the 1860s was elected as a member of parliament, produced plays, and became a successful journalist. During the Franco-Prussian War, he wrote what became the entries in his Diary as missives sent to his lover Henrietta Hodson via balloon; they were first published in the Daily News. He died at the age of eighty in Italy in 1912.