Historian. The son of a banking family, Grote was born at Beckenham in Kent and educated at Charterhouse School. He was a follower of Bentham and James Mill, publishing pamphlets in support of reform. He entered the family business in 1830, and in 1832 became MP for the City of London. Since 1823 he had worked intermittently on his A History of Greece, and after returning from Parliament (1841) and banking (1843) he devoted himself to its completion. It was published in 12 volumes (1845 - 6) and surpassed the similar work by his friend from Charterhouse days, Connop Thirlwall. Grote wrote two more works on Greek philosophy: Plato and the other Companions of Sokrates (1865) and Aristotle (posthumously published, 1872).