TWA Poet - William Ernest Henley

1849 - 1903

It's the birthday of English poet William Ernest Henley, born in Gloucester in 1849. When he was a young man, he contracted a form of tuberculosis that affects the bones, and he had to have one foot amputated when he was about 17. A few years later, a doctor told him the other one would have to come off as well, but Henley refused to accept the diagnosi…