Henri Dunant (1828 – 1910) was a Swiss businessman who happened to witness the horrors of the 1859 Battle of Solferino between France, Sardinia, and Austria. Three years later he published Un Souvenir de Solferino at his own expense and presented it to leading figures in Europe. The next year, due to his efforts, the Red Cross was founded.
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At last, in 1897, he was discovered in the Swiss village of H eiden, where he was living in misery, in a Home for old men, with almost no means other than a small pension received from the Empress of Russia.