Humanitarian, founder of the Red Cross, a founder of the Red Cross, a founder of the World´s Young Men´s Christian Association, co-winner of the first Nobel Prize for Peace in 1901.
An eyewitness of the Battle of Solferino, June 24, 1859, which resulted in nearly 40,000 casualties, Dunant organized emergency aid services for the Austrian and French wounded.
In Un Souvenir de Solférino (1862) he proposed the formation in all countries of voluntary relief societies for the prevention and alleviation of suffering in war and peace without distinction of race or creed; he also proposed an international agreement covering the war wounded.
In 1864, the year he founded the Red Cross, the first national societies and the first Geneva Convention came into being.
Having gone bankrupt because he neglected his business affairs, Dunant left Geneva in 1867 and spent most of the rest of his life in poverty and oscurity. He continued to fight to promote interest in the treatment of prisoners of war, the abolition of slavery, international arbitration, disarmament and a Jewish homeland.
In 1895, after a newspaperman "rediscovered" him at Heiden, Dunant received many honours and annuities, in addition to the Nobel Peace Prize.
Ellen Hart´s biography Man Born to Live appeared in 1953.
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