This British philanthropist began, from 1872 onwards, having dozens of public fountains installed in Paris to offer free drinking water to the poorest residents. Who is he?
The answer
The illegitimate son of the Marquess of Hertford, Sir Richard Wallace funded around fifty green cast-iron fountains from 1872 onwards, at a time when drinking water was in desperately short supply following the siege of Paris and the Commune. He died in 1890 and rests at Père-Lachaise; his fountains still bear his name today.
This question belongs to the “Famous Foreigners” series of the Père-Lachaise quiz: ten questions, a story behind every right answer.