Ernest Dowson

Ernest Dowson stands as a near-perfect symbol for the 'English decadence' of the 1890s - one perhaps overshadowed only by his friend and mentor Oscar Wilde. He was born into relative affluence, the son of the owner of a Limehouse dry-docking business. He appears to have been an intellectually curious child, comfortable in both French and Italian and imbued with a deep love of classical poetry. He gained entrance to Queen's College, Oxford but was forced to leave after a downturn in his family's financial and social standing decayed into near-penury and bankruptcy.