The Other Man in the Iron Mask

Posted by Miss Cellania in Everything Else on January 1, 2008 at 9:38 am


HarryBensley

100 years ago today, Harry Bensley set off on a strange journey, in order to fulfill the requirements of a wager between John Pierpont Morgan and Hugh Cecil Lowther, 5th Earl of Lonsdale. The question was whether a man could walk around the world without being identified. The journey had 15 conditions, including that Bensley had to wear an iron mask from a suit of armor and push a baby carriage! Bensley spent the next six and a half years trying to fulfill the terms of the wager. Link




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COMMENT

11 comments to "The Other Man in the Iron Mask"

  1. Tim Giachetti
    January 1st, 2008 at 11:53 am

    And the moral of our story? Always pick “truth” in Truth or Dare. :P

  2. Jeff
    January 1st, 2008 at 12:21 pm

    Interesting, but I can’t believe this guy had nothing better to do with 6.5 years of his life.

  3. Noelegy
    January 1st, 2008 at 1:49 pm

    I wonder what 21,000 pounds is by today’s standards.

  4. Alex
    January 1st, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    There’s a website on the adventure of Harry Bensley (with more photos) maintained by Ken McNaught, the great grandson of Bensley.

    By the way, today (January 1 2008) is the 100th anniversary of the start of Bensley’s adventure.

    And Noelegy, £21,000 at 1907 is now valued:

    £1,526,895.66 using the retail price index
    £1,907,101.55 using the GDP deflator
    £8,019,583.97 using average earnings
    £9,330,442.38 using per capita GDP
    £12,913,543.88 using the GDP

    (source)

  5. MoonCake
    January 1st, 2008 at 3:40 pm

    this would be an awesome movie… if anyone were to take up this story it would have to be the cohen brothers. i could see it being a bit like ‘no country for old men..’ and it would have to be starring a young john cleece. of cours, this is not possible, and my dreams are crushed.

  6. Jocelyn
    January 1st, 2008 at 6:24 pm

    Found this link through fark:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/01/01/nmask1 01.xml

    “Despite more than 20 years of research (his great-grandson) has not found a shred of evidence his ancestor ever left Britain.”

    Although, they made a mistake in the last paragraph (ancestor vs. descendant).

  7. ted
    January 2nd, 2008 at 6:23 am

    Sounds like he didn’t actually do it, but simply went incognito for a few years to avoid his creditors.
    It’s like betting you can go around the world as an invisible person - who’s to prove you didn’t?

  8. Q
    January 2nd, 2008 at 11:34 am

    How much is that in American dollars?

  9. Alex
    January 2nd, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    Back then £ 21,0000 was $100,000. Today’s value, keeping the valuation method above:

    $3.1 million using the retail price index
    $3.8 million using the GDP deflator
    $16 million using average earnings
    $18.6 million using per capita gDP
    $25.8 million using the GDP

  10. Weakly
    January 2nd, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    …is this an old photograph of Daft Punk?

  11. Alan McNaught
    January 3rd, 2008 at 1:26 pm

    Inresponse to Mooncakes question a movie is possibly in the making, although I don’t know the full details yet about whether it is going to go ahead or not. I should also mention that Harry Bensley is my great great grandfather.


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