One of the great British swindlers of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was a man called Horatio Bottomley (1860–1933). He was exceptional, though one cannot help but wonder whether his given name helped him on his way, since anyone called Horatio is bound to connect himself with the single-handed defense of bridges or with naval battles rather than with safe and humble careers such as clerk in an insurance office. Conversely, “Bottomley” as a surname precluded art as a career. Hanbury, H.G.; Mooney, Hugh (2004). "Salter, Sir Arthur Clavell". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/35918 . Retrieved 2 July 2014. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.) A prisoner in the prison in which many years ago I worked as a doctor came into my consulting room with a volume of Wittgenstein under his arm.

Bottomley's mother was greatly attached to Charles Bradlaugh, and it was her custom to go to all his lectures and meetings and sit on the platform with Baby Bottomley in long clothes. Government Policy". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Hansard online. 3 May 1920. pp.col. 1701. Archived from the original on 17 March 2016 . Retrieved 2 July 2016. In one respect at least, Horatio Bottomley resembled many of the most notable - and some of the most notorious - men in history. After every big physical and mental effort, whether in finance, the law, public oratory, journalism, or politics, he turned with unfailing regularity to the fair sex for solace, oblivion, and refreshment.Horatio Bottomley, the only son of William King Bottomley (1827–1863), a tailor's cutter, and his wife, Elizabeth Holyoake, was born at 16 St Peter's Street, Bethnal Green, on 23rd March 1860. His father, who suffered from mental problems, died in a "fit of mania" in Bethleham Hospital, three years later. His mother died of cancer when he was only four years old.

Recognising the signs, a former partner of his from his old lotteries referred to the Victory Bonds Club as “Horatio Bottomley’s latest swindle”. Horatio foolishly sued the man and lost, which led inevitably to an investigation and his own trial for fraud. After having dodged prosecution so often, Horatio might have expected this to be another chance to show off in court and walk out a free time. However, there was at least one major difference this time. Horatio had developed a serious drinking problem – bad enough that he actually had to negotiate a fifteen minute break each day to allow him to drink a pint of champagne and stave off withdrawal. As a result, though the prosecutor was far more adept than any of his previous opponents he later commented: “It was not I that floored him, but drink”. A court drawing of Horatio being sentenced.Wussow, Helen (1998). The Nightmare of History: The Fictions of Virginia Woolf and D.H. Lawrence. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presses Inc. ISBN 0-934223-46-7. Eliza Norton was a dressmaker’s assistant and the daughter of a debt collector. Not exactly a socially ambitious marriage for Horatio, but she was pretty and proved a supportive wife to Horatio. She gave him a daughter, and more importantly she tolerated his many, many infidelities over the next fifty years. His marriage also made him respectable enough to be given a partnership in the shorthand company, where his immense natural charm and apparent business acumen had clearly impressed the owners. But Horatio had bigger ambitions than just running a shorthand firm. And he saw two routes to achieve them – publishing, and politics. Charles Bradlaugh

When Horatio was eight, however, George Jacob, who had large numbers of children of his own and could not afford any longer to keep him, sent him to the Josiah Mason Orphanage in Birmingham, where he remained until he ran away aged fourteen. Horatio did not shine academically at the orphanage, perhaps because he was too brilliant to have done so. But he must have been well taught there, the orphanage having been run in a comparatively enlightened way, and he was probably not too miserable either, for he remained attached to the orphanage and never failed to visit it when he was nearby, even making detours in his itinerary to do so. Hooley's and Bottomley's paths would cross several times in future years; they were inmates together in Wormwood Scrubs prison in 1922. [50] Bottomley also had a luxury apartment in Pall Mall and owned several racehorses. He twice won the Cesarewitch and several other races, but never achieved the successes in the Derby or the Grand National, even though he spent a great deal of money trying to achieve this ambition. He also lost a great deal of money on failed betting coups.Ruth Dudley Edwards (2013). Newspapermen: Hugh Cudlipp, Cecil Harmsworth King and the Glory Days of Fleet Street. Random House. pp.131–2. ISBN 978-1-4464-8563-7. In March 1922 he was charged with fraud. Tried before Mr Justice Salter at the Old Bailey, Bottomley was found guilty on twenty-three out of twenty-four counts and sentenced to seven years' penal servitude. His legal appeal was rejected and he was expelled from the House of Commons. He was released from Maidstone Prison in July 1927 after serving five years. At the age of 26, Bottomley became the company's chairman. [27] His advance in the business world was attracting wider notice, and in 1887 he was invited by the Liberal Party in Hornsey to be their candidate in a parliamentary by-election. He accepted, and although defeated by Henry Stephens, the ink magnate, fought a strong campaign which won him a congratulatory letter from William Gladstone. [21] His business affairs were proceeding less serenely; he quarrelled with his partner Douglas MacRae, and the two decided to separate. Bottomley described the "Quixotic impulse" that led him to let MacRae divide the assets: "He was a printer, and I was a journalist—but he took the papers and left me the printing works". [28] Hansard Publishing Union [ edit ] Sir Henry Hawkins, the judge before whom Bottomley appeared, and was acquitted, on fraud charges in 1893