William Knox D'Arcy

William Knox D’Arcy was a British-Australian mining entrepreneur whose fortune grew from the Mount Morgan gold mine in Queensland. In 1901, he secured a major concession to explore for oil in Persia; the discovery at Masjed Soleyman in 1908 led to the formation of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company in 1909, later renamed Anglo-Iranian Oil and ultimately known as BP. D’Arcy served on the company’s board until his death in 1917.