When Henley was 16 years old, his left leg required amputation owing to complications arising from tuberculosis.[1]: 16  In the early 1870s, after seeking treatment for problems with his other leg at Margate, he was told that it would require a similar procedure.[2]

He instead chose to travel to Edinburgh in August 1873 to enlist the services of the distinguished English surgeon Joseph Lister,[1]: 17–18 [3] who was able to save Henley's remaining leg after multiple surgical interventions on the foot.[4] While recovering in the infirmary, he was moved to write the verses that became the poem "Invictus". A memorable evocation of Victorian stoicism—the "stiff upper lip" of self-discipline and fortitude in adversity, which popular culture rendered into a British character trait—"Invictus" remains a cultural touchstone.[5]

indeed he was. Such a rebel!