History Main / GentlemanAdventurer

* ''ComicBook/TheWarlordDC'': The 2009 run features Ned Hankins, one of the richest men in the world, who spends his free time on safaris, deep-sea diving trips, and breaking land speed records. He is persuaded to lead and finance a journey to the Earth's core. Once they arrive, he reveals some long-hidden fantasies about brutally conquering civilizations and setting himself up as a god now that he doesn't think anyone can stop him.

* ''ComicBook/GreenArrow'': Green Arrow started out this way. When he then lost his fortune, he suffered an identity crisis over whether he'd been superheroing out of a legitimate desire to do good, or just for fun. He thereafter became a much more passionate and socially-conscious do-gooder.

* Naturally, Col. Horace Gentleman of ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers'' ("[=RAF=], [=MI5=], et cetera... retired") who is, admittedly, a takeoff on Quatermain and Bond, with elements of racism and pederasty by way of William S. Burroughs.

* [[Characters/DuckTales2017ScroogeMcDuck Scrooge McDuck]] from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' and ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' is the richest duck in the world, has an insatiable thirst for adventure, and even dresses like a Victorian Era gentleman even though the shows take place in the modern world. Interestingly, he often describes his past adventures from the typical "gentleman adventurer" period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, implying that he's well over one hundred years old.

* Scrooge [=McDuck=] from ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987'' and ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' is the richest duck in the world, has an insatiable thirst for adventure, and even dresses like a Victorian Era gentleman even though the shows take place in the modern world. Interestingly, he often describes his past adventures from the typical "gentleman adventurer" period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, implying that he's well over one hundred years old.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'' seems to suggest that "Doc" Brown is a subversion. He was rich enough to own a huge mansion in 1955, but by 1985 he's a recluse living in a garage (the mansion burned down, according to a newspaper article seen in the opening) and says he spent his entire family fortune to pay for his TimeTravel experiments. By the second film, he's acquired a briefcase full of cash from different eras. Considering his objection to Marty using future knowledge to bet on sports, how he acquired this money is unexplained (a tie-in comic revealed he had been buying extremely rare comic books on the day of their publication).

* In ''VideoGame/{{Koudelka'', Edward J. Plunkett is a British adventurer from a wealthy family, capable of quoting the works of Shakespeare and Lord Byron at length. However, he's also a PragmaticHero and ChivalrousPervert whose motivation for [[InHarmsWay seeking adventure]] is because he desires to find some kind of [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife purpose in life]].

* In ''[[VideoGame/ShadowHearts Koudelka]]'', Edward J. Plunkett is a British adventurer from a wealthy family, capable of quoting the works of Shakespeare and Lord Byron at length. However, he's also a PragmaticHero and ChivalrousPervert whose motivation for [[InHarmsWay seeking adventure]] is because he desires to find some kind of [[DesperatelyLookingForAPurposeInLife purpose in life]].

* Charles Fort and Creator/HPLovecraft in ''ComicBook/AtomicRobo'':
-->'''Fort:''' We were adventurers!\\
'''Robo:''' You guys don't ''look'' like adventurers.\\
'''Fort:''' Adventure was more a hobby. We're ''writers'', really.
* ComicBook/GreenArrow started out this way. When he then lost his fortune, he suffered an identity crisis over whether he'd been superheroing out of a legitimate desire to do good, or just for fun. He thereafter became a much more passionate and socially-conscious do-gooder.
* Polly of ''ComicBook/PollyAndThePirates'' has a father who definitely falls under this category. He even makes his entrance in top hat and tails, being lowered on the ladder of a hot-air balloon.
* ComicBook/RichieRich's butler Cadbury loves to reminisce about his escapades with his former employer Sir Ruddy Blighter, "adventurist and time-waster extraordinaire."
* The 2009 run of ''ComicBook/TheWarlord'' features Ned Hankins, one of the richest men in the world, who spends his free time on safaris, deep-sea diving trips, and breaking land speed records. He is persuaded to lead and finance a journey to the Earth's core. Once they arrive, he reveals some long-hidden fantasies about brutally conquering civilizations and setting himself up as a god now that he doesn't think anyone can stop him.

* This might be the best way to describe Mahanon Lavellan's occupation in the ''Fanfic/SkyholdAcademyYearbook'' series. He's a private consultant for various law enforcement agencies all over [[Franchise/DragonAge Thedas]], but his actual skills range from codebreaking to breaking and entering. He's very tight-lipped about the true nature of what he does, and he delights in turning up at the eponymous school without any prior warning.

May double as a BoldExplorer and have some overlap with the AdventurerArchaeologist, GreatWhiteHunter and EgomaniacHunter. Often ends up a CoolOldGuy and insists on wearing an overblown AdventurerOutfit. His DistaffCounterpart is the LadyOfAdventure, and if he ''marries'' one you can expect a BattleCouple. Is a perfect adversary for the GentlemanThief, unless of course he ''is'' the Gentleman Thief living a double life. A similar archetype in SpyFiction is the TuxedoAndMartini-style gentleman spy. Finally, it seems probable that the RichIdiotWithNoDayJob is an outgrowth of this character type.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1867 Lord Theodore Thomas Blackwood,]] a GentlemanAdventurer of [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/system:page-tags/tag/blackwood#pages no small distinction]]. Or he's a telepathic sea-slug trying to pull a fast one. Hard to tell.

!!Examples

[[folder:Literature]]
* Richard Hannay in ''Literature/TheThirtyNineSteps'' by John Buchan is independently wealthy and looking for adventure to stave off boredom when adventure finds him. He returned for several sequels, but doesn't count as this trope in those: the first two sequels are set during the War and his adventures are primarily a matter of patriotic duty, and then after the war he's had enough of adventure and is perfectly happy to settle down with his family, only occasionally stirring out of retirement because some friend really needs his help.
* Allan Quatermain [[LostInImitation in adaptations]], although in the original Creator/HRiderHaggard novels, his pals Sir Henry Curtis and Capn. John Good fit the trope much better than him. Quatermain himself is a much earthier type: a former miner turned GreatWhiteHunter.
* ''Literature/AShillingForCandles'': Edward Champenis comes from five centuries of aristocratic lineage and has the appearance of a dignified gentleman, but Grant reminds himself that this look is deceiving, as Edward explores for fun, writes books, and "married an artist picked up at the other side of the world."
* ''Literature/ArseneLupin'' is one of the earliest examples of this trope, appearing in the early 20th century. He's turned to robbery, rather than African wilds, using a mix of subterfuge and audacity that leaves the police unable to apprehend him. But his taste is just as considerable as his skill. He's such a discerning burglar that he once broke into someone's house only to leave a note letting the owner know that he would return once the reproductions were replaced with something worth stealing.
* Literature/{{Biggles}} ended up as one of these in the inter-war period, albeit not entirely of his own free will; many of of his adventures from this period started out with him working a relatively mundane airfreight charter and minding his own business before being dragged into the MysteryOfTheWeek by circumstances out of his control. On at least one occasion he was hired by a more conventional example of the trope to fly his expedition out to some remote location, and then had to bail him out when everything went wrong.
* ''Literature/BulldogDrummond'' is a classic inter-war version, an officer and a gentleman of independent means who gets into adventures for the excitement rather than for any personal gain. He is often seen as a bit of a thug and accidental deconstruction by later standards.
* Creator/AgathaChristie had a fair number of these in her novels. Sometimes, they would be the hero, such as Colonel Race who appears in several books, but sometimes subverted, as with Lombard, an amoral gun-for-hire in ''Literature/AndThenThereWereNone'' or whenever the traditional type turned out to be the murderer in the book.
* Phileas Fogg from the Creator/JulesVerne classic ''Literature/AroundTheWorldInEightyDays''.
* The Jackal in ''Literature/TheDayOfTheJackal'' is supposed to be the EvilCounterpart of this kind of character.
* ''Literature/DoctorSynTheScarecrow'' is an Oxford scholar who somehow turns out to be a peerless swordsman, horseman, navigator, and criminal gang leader.
* Bilbo and later Frodo in ''Literature/TheHobbit'' and ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings''. Bilbo's father married the wealthy Belladonna Took, whose money built the finest home in Hobbiton, Bag End. Neither wanted adventure at first, but after some prodding found they had a talent and a taste for it. Merry is also a Brandybuck, who are also an old respectable family, and Pippin is a cousin on the Took side (the Tooks technically being the closest hobbits have to a royal family, as the patriarch is the Thain--though nobody but the Tooks really take an interest in that) but are also heirs to large farm estates, unlike the Bagginses. Sam, by contrast, is an actual working-class laborer. We never find out much about Fatty Bolger's source of income.
* In ''Literature/JamesBond'' novels at least, the desire to quit playing Cowboys and Indians actually referred to his decision to quit having fun catching field agents and to start striking directly at SMERSH, the subsection of the KGB that enforced undying loyalty to the Soviet Union. This was right after the fear that SMERSH was after he drove [[spoiler:Vesper]] to suicide in ''Literature/CasinoRoyale''.
* Lord John Roxton in Conan Doyle's ''Literature/TheLostWorld1912''. Travels the world for the thrill of the hunt, and is happy to drop everything to accompany Prof. Challenger on his quest to find a LostWorld in South America.
* ''Literature/MurderInTheMews'': Sir Gervase is a risk-taking baronet. In his youth, he traveled to the South Pole, sailed around the world in a windjammer, and discovered a South American mine.
* Prince Florizel of Bohemia in Creator/RobertLouisStevenson's ''New Arabian Nights''
* Julien Advent, Victorian Adventurer from the ''Literature/{{Nightside}}''. To the surprise of the main character, he's the real deal and genuine to boot, and one of the few people for whom HardboiledDetective John Taylor would cry ManlyTears.
* ''Literature/ThePickwickPapers'' by Creator/CharlesDickens.
* Rudolph Rassendyl in ''Literature/ThePrisonerOfZenda''
* Creator/PGWodehouse's Literature/{{Psmith}} takes on this role in the novel ''Psmith, Journalist''.
* The GentlemanThief Literature/{{Raffles}} from the short stories by Ernest William Hornung affects the ''style'' of an adventurer, but really relies on crime to support himself financially.
* ''Literature/RiversOfLondon'' has this as being part of Nightingale's backstory. Between the wars, he was out adventuring in the British Empire, India, and Far East, discovering all sorts of magical strife and acting as a one man troubleshooting squad. Then [=WW2=] and [[HeroicBSOD Ettersberg]] happened.
* The unnamed protagonist of ''Literature/RogueMale'' appears to be one of these. Apparently just for the fun of it, he tries to see if he could get into a position to assassinate a dictator (implied to be Hitler), but is captured and brutally tortured. His experiences afterward resemble a much darker version of Buchan's ''The Thirty-Nine Steps'', until it turns out that he is an UnreliableNarrator with motives very different from any thirst for adventure. [[spoiler: The dictator's regime murdered the hero's probably Jewish girlfriend, and he really ''was'' trying to kill him. The book ends with the hero preparing for another attempt.]]
* ''Literature/TheSaint'': Simon Templar, although most of the money he has was [[PayEvilUntoEvil extracted from crooks he'd taken down]].
* While as noted, the RichIdiotWithNoDayJob is more of a modern variation, and that character tends to be motivated by a quest for justice more so than adventure, the ur-example of that trope, Literature/TheScarletPimpernel, fits this trope as well. As do the members of his band, who pose as {{Upper Class Twit}}s while risking their lives to save aristocrats from the guillotine.
* ''Literature/SherlockHolmes'' doesn't travel as much as many of the other examples on this page, but he is implied to come from the gentry (as his family are said to be country squires), he is an expert at GoodOldFisticuffs, is often a SharpDressedMan, is impeccably courteous to women even despite his general dislike of them, is a GentlemanSnarker and a GentlemanAndAScholar, and one of the reasons he works as a consulting detective is to avoid RichBoredom, which to him is a FateWorseThanDeath.
** Although not so rich, at least at the start of his career. In ''Literature/AStudyInScarlet'', he takes in Watson as a housemate because he cannot afford the rent on 221B Baker Street on his own.
* ''Literature/TheStainlessSteelRat'' once wrote a paper on this trope. He held that society moving past the stage where a man could be both a respected member of society (Gentleman) and totally apart from it (Adventurer) forced individuals to choose which they wanted to be, and stay with that choice for the rest of their lives. [=DiGriz=] himself chose to be outside of society, as a thief.
* The Time Traveler in ''Literature/TheTimeMachine''.
* ''Creator/ElizabethMoon'''s ''Literature/VattasWar'' series has Ransome's Rangers, a group of very wealthy men who are specifically looking to be Gentlemen Adventurers. They are extremely stylish, fancy in dress, full of bold and flowery statements, but also prove themselves brave in battle. The fact that they are rich enough to fund the weapons and materials that are needed to carry out the war doesn't hurt either...
* ''Literature/WaxAndWayne'':
** Parodied with the TwoFistedTale of "[[Franchise/{{Mistborn}} Allomancer Jak]]". Complete with [[DeadpanSnarker trusty Terrisman sidekick]] and designated DamselInDistress, who edits his lurid accounts of the savage Roughs with copious [[FootnoteFever footnotes]].
** Wax himself is not an example, but his insistence on dressing finely even when dragging in outlaws has given him a similar reputation. He dislikes the implication that he's doing it all as a hobby. He fights crime because [[TheSheriff someone has to]]. There are several implications that he and Jak have met--Wax mentions Jak by name once, and Jak references Wax's habit of replenishing his Allomancy with whiskey. They hate each other.
** Possibly due to the exploits of Wax and Jak, "gentleman adventurer" clubs have become popular among the rich and powerful. Wax notes that they don't actually ''do'' any adventuring, instead hanging around in townhouses smoking and talking.
--->'''Wax:''' At least that fop Jak actually left his rusting house.
** ''Literature/TheBandsOfMourning'' has Wax admit to Marasi, to his embarrassment, he styled himself as a Gentleman Adventurer when he first left Elendel. It's his InUniverse OldShame and he only got snapped out of the behavior by the harsh reality of life in the Roughs.
* Mr. Toad from ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows''. Or so he'd describe himself. The rest of the world regards him as a UpperClassTwit.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The late [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Bernhard_of_Lippe-Biesterfeld Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld,]] Prince of the Netherlands, was part this and part LovableRogue. Though the "Gentleman" part is disputed.
* Creator/BrianBlessed: When he isn't shouting in films or shouting on the television, he's trying to climb up Mount Everest. He's also boxed with a GODDAMN Polar Bear. He won.
* In an interview on CSPAN's Q and A, New York Times columnist Ross Douthat described William F. Buckley Jr. as one of these after describing his experience of skinny-dipping with the (at that point, very old) Buckley after he (and other young National Review interns) had eaten a fancy meal on his boat.
* Sir Richard Francis Burton ([[NamesTheSame no, not]] [[Creator/RichardBurton the actor]]) was the first European to view Lake Tanganyika, the first to visit the Great Mosque of Mecca (at a time when non-Muslims were forbidden on pain of death), and served as a British diplomat in numerous places. He was also a GentlemanAndAScholar, knew several languages, and wrote the English translations of ''[[Literature/ArabianNights A Thousand And One Nights]]'' and the ''Literature/KamaSutra'', as well as studies on such varied topics as geography, ethnography, human sexuality, and fencing.
* Creator/JamesCameron: for a given definition of "Gentleman," at least. Ever since ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}},'' he's taken on deep-sea exploration and photography as his hobby.
* Creator/JosephConrad. Sailed the seas and didn't even learn English until age 20 and changed the face of English literature. He was even literally referred to as a "gentleman adventurer" by William [=McFee=] in a forward to ''Conrad Argosy''.
* UsefulNotes/CharlesDarwin, who JumpedAtTheCall. And promptly was seasick for the rest of the next few years. When he got back to England, he never left again, and busied himself with experiments in his garden and documenting the sex lives of barnacles, among other things.
* Sean Flynn, son of movie actor Creator/ErrolFlynn, took photos of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar for Magazine/TimeMagazine, GoingForTheBigScoop. He disappeared (and was apparently killed) while traveling by motorcycle in Cambodia some time around 1970. Flynn wasn't in Vietnam because he needed the money, and, according to Michael Herr in "Dispatches," none of the press corp respected him until they actually saw the photos he was taking. He occasionally left Vietnam to star in motion pictures, then returned to get shot at some more.
* Before he got into politics, Barry Goldwater was one of the first people to boat recreationally through the Grand Canyon (he rowed himself all the way to Lake Mead) flew relief missions in over 165 different kinds of aircraft all over the world (including over Mt. Everest) in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar, gave free flights home for returning veterans of both wars, pressured the Pentagon to support desegregation and the creation of an Air Force Academy, and still flew B-52s as a two-star general in the Air Force Reserve while a sitting Senator.
* George Gordon, Creator/LordByron: Poet, aristocrat, TropeNamer for the ByronicHero, and by virtue of this trope... a national hero in a country that absolutely had nothing to do with his own. Living proof that not every gentleman can be an adventurer: Byron actually had none of the training necessary to be even mildly effective as a soldier or military commander, and his [[WarIsGlorious romanticized idea of heroic warfare]] was met with the [[WarIsHell far harsher realities]]: [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he died of septicemia without ever taking the field.]] One could argue that his celebrity status led to AcquiredSituationalNarcissism, and he thought he would be great at warfare by virtue of being great at everything else, but things ended [[BreaktheHaughty differently than they did in his poems]].
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary Sir Edmund Hillary.]]
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory George Mallory,]] who probably summed up this trope with his reply to the question of why he wanted to summit Mount Everest:
-->"Because it's there."
* Alexander von Humboldt was an early example. A Prussian aristocrat, he traveled to South America and explored from 1799-1804. He traveled up the Amazon headwaters, documented a huge selection of plants and animals from the region, discovered and corrected errors in the maps and sea charts of Ecuador's coast, and even was one of the first people to propose that South America and Africa were once connected. His exploits were recorded and published in the United States at the time, and his resulting celebrity led to numerous mountains, rivers, towns, and Humboldt County, California, being named in his honor.
* TruthInTelevision: UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt was a well-educated, well-dressed, well-mannered statesman who also just so happened to have spent much of his life as a {{cowboy}}, [[ColonelBadass an army colonel]], a police commissioner, a GreatWhiteHunter, and an all-around MemeticBadass who led the US army to an unlikely victory in the Spanish-American War, survived a bullet to the chest, and killed a cougar with a knife. His other hobbies included boxing, wrestling, polo, tennis, hiking, and football.
* The Grand Tour was the 18th to early 19th Century equivalent of a gap year for the upper class, and it was more or less about a Gentleman (or woman) going Adventuring for some time before settling down.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Ranulph_Fiennes Sir Ranulph Fiennes.]]
* Creator/ErnestHemingway was one of Western literature's most prominent {{Memetic Badass}}es. First 20th Century writer to get away with the word "fuck". Master of BeigeProse. Fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, [[IntrepidReporter covered]] [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII the sequel]]. Wrestled lions. Flew airplanes. Caught big fish. [[RealMenWearPink Made Mojitos and Daiquiris manly]]. Grandfather of actresses Creator/MarielHemingway and Creator/MargauxHemingway. [[AteHisGun Shot himself]] because [[BigBrotherIsWatching even the FBI was scared of him]], and [[DrivenToSuicide he got sick of them]] lurking around every corner wherever he went.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Kemp_(writer) Peter Kemp]] was a Brit who, like Creator/GeorgeOrwell, JumpedAtTheCall at the start of the UsefulNotes/SpanishCivilWar and enlisted (but on the opposite side from Orwell) and wrote the biography ''Mine Were Of Trouble'' about his experiences. He was able to turn his adventures into an entire ''trilogy'', as despite barely surviving he enlisted in World War II immediately after. He spent the rest of his life as an IntrepidReporter, covering revolutions across the world.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill "Mad Jack" Churchill,]] a British Army officer who served in WWII and fought with a longbow, bagpipes, and a Scottish broadsword. His exploits earned him the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order, and he was captured by the Germans after getting knocked out by explosives, who then sent him to a concentration camp believing him to be a relative of UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. He and four other officers including Major [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Dodge Johnnie Dodge]] managed to dig an escape tunnel, but were recaptured before being rescued after the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_of_concentration_camp_inmates_to_Tyrol Tyrol conflict.]] He was then sent to the Burma Campaign, but by the time he reached India, America had ended the war which [[NoPlaceForAWarrior displeased him]]. In 2014, the Royal Norwegian Explorers Club published his biography and named him one of the greatest examples of this trope of all time.
* A modern example is "Lord" Miles Routledge, a British independent IntrepidReporter who travels to dangerous locations as a hobby while offering as much aid as he can to residents. He vacationed at Chernobyl in 2019, achieved international fame after going to the capital of Afghanistan ''the day before'' it was retaken by the Taliban in 2021, accepted an invitation to wartorn South Sudan from a local fan soon after, covered the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Kazakh_unrest 2022 Kazakhstan riots,]] and went on a relief mission to Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion.
[[/folder]]

May double as a BoldExplorer and have some overlap with the AdventurerArchaeologist, GreatWhiteHunter and EgomaniacHunter. Often ends up a CoolOldGuy and insists on wearing an overblown AdventurerOutfit. His DistaffCounterpart is the LadyOfAdventure, and if he ''marries'' one you can expect a BattleCouple. Is a perfect adversary for the GentlemanThief, unless of course he ''is'' the Gentleman Thief living a double life. Finally, it seems probable that the RichIdiotWithNoDayJob is an outgrowth of this character type.

* George Gordon, Lord Byron: Poet, Aristocrat, TropeNamer for the ByronicHero, and by virtue of this trope... a national hero in a country that absolutely had nothing to do with his own. Living proof that not every gentleman can be an adventurer: Byron actually had none of the training necessary to be even mildly effective as a soldier or military commander, and his [[WarIsGlorious romanticized idea of heroic warfare]] was met with the [[WarIsHell far harsher realities]]: [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he died of septicemia without ever taking the field.]] One could argue that his celebrity status led to AcquiredSituationalNarcissism, and he thought he would be great at warfare by virtue of being great at everything else, but things ended [[BreaktheHaughty differently than they did in his poems]].

* George Gordon, Lord Byron: Poet, Aristocrat, [[ByronicHero Infamous]] {{Jerkass}} womanizer, and by virtue of this trope... a national hero in a country that absolutely had nothing to do with his own. Living proof that not every gentleman can be an adventurer: Byron actually had none of the training necessary to be even mildly effective as a soldier or military commander, and his [[WarIsGlorious romanticized idea of heroic warfare]] was met with the [[WarIsHell far harsher realities]]: [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he died of septicemia without ever taking the field.]] One could argue that his celebrity status led to AcquiredSituationalNarcissism, and he thought he would be great at warfare by virtue of being great at everything else, but things ended [[BreaktheHaughty differently than they did in his poems]].

* ''Webcomic/GirlGenius'': Othar Tryggvassen, '''Gentleman Adventurer!'''. On the flip side, he's also a WellIntentionedExtremist AntiVillain who intends to deal with the whole "[[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder sparks]] issue" in a rather [[GottaKillThemAll pointed and non-discriminatory fashion]]. For those not familiar with the series, that means ''himself included.'' [[NoPlaceForMeThere Himself last]]. Othar's twitter reveals that he's more than willing to make an exception to "himself last" in situations involving cloning, time travel or alternate universes. He's out to get the most dangerous sparks first, after all, and he's the most dangerous spark he knows.

* The Wiki/SCPFoundation has [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1867 Lord Theodore Thomas Blackwood]], a GentlemanAdventurer of [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/system:page-tags/tag/blackwood#pages no small distinction]]. Or he's a telepathic sea-slug trying to pull a fast one. Hard to tell.

* The late [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Bernhard_of_Lippe-Biesterfeld Bernhard of Lippe-Biesterfeld]], Prince of the Netherlands, was part this and part LovableRogue. Though the "Gentleman" part is disputed.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Hillary Sir Edmund Hillary]].
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Mallory George Mallory]], who probably summed up this trope with his reply to the question of why he wanted to summit Mount Everest:

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Ranulph_Fiennes Sir Ranulph Fiennes]].

* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Churchill "Mad Jack" Churchill]], a British Army officer who served in WWII and fought with a longbow, bagpipes, and a Scottish broadsword. His exploits earned him the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order, and he was captured by the Germans after getting knocked out by explosives, who then sent him to a concentration camp believing him to be a relative of UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill. He and four other officers including Major [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Dodge Johnnie Dodge]] managed to dig an escape tunnel, but were recaptured before being rescued after the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_of_concentration_camp_inmates_to_Tyrol Tyrol conflict]]. He was then sent to the Burma Campaign, but by the time he reached India, America had ended the war which [[NoPlaceForAWarrior displeased him]]. In 2014, the Royal Norwegian Explorers Club published his biography and named him one of the greatest examples of this trope of all time.
* A modern example is "Lord" Miles Routledge, a British independent IntrepidReporter who travels to dangerous locations as a hobby while offering as much aid as he can to residents. He vacationed at Chernobyl in 2019, achieved international fame after going to the capital of Afghanistan ''the day before'' it was retaken by the Taliban in 2021, accepted an invitation to wartorn South Sudan from a local fan soon after, covered the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Kazakh_unrest 2022 Kazakhstan riots]], and went on a relief mission to Ukraine during the 2022 Russian invasion.