W. H. (William Henry) Koebel

Born in Forest Hill, London, on January 11, 1872, William Henry Koebel was an English author and businessman. He became known for books about Portugal and Madeira, as well as the Caribbean, Central America, and South America, often writing about trade, industry, and everyday life alongside landscape and history.

Koebel's work includes travel and regional studies such as South America, Uruguay, Paraguay, Modern Argentina, and Portugal, Its Land and People. He also wrote fiction, including The Singular Republic, showing that his interests reached beyond straight travel narrative. Much of his writing now appeals as a record of how these places were described to English-language readers in the early 20th century.

He died on June 20, 1923. Although he is not a household name today, his books have lasted through library collections and public-domain editions, and they still offer curious readers a window into the travel writing and commercial world of his era.