William Knox D'Arcy

William Knox D'Arcy (11 October 18491 May 1917) was a British-Australian businessman who was one of the principal founders of the oil and petrochemical industry in Persia (Iran). The D’Arcy Concession was signed in 1901 and allowed D'Arcy to explore, obtain, and market oil, natural gas, asphalt, and ozokerite in Persia. Early life He was born in Newton Abbot, Devon, England and was the son of a solicitor. He attended Westminster School until 1866, when the family emigrated to Australia following his father's bankruptcy, settling in Rockhampton, Queensland. D'Arcy continued his studies and chose to follow law, later joining his father's business. He did well and began to speculate, initially in land. He married Elena Birkbeck of Rockhampton at St Patrick's Cathedral, Parramatta on 23 October 1872. Elena was born in Mexico in 1840, the only daughter of Damiana de Barre Valdez and Samuel Birkbeck, a mining engineer from Illinois in the United States, who was in Mexico managing a silver mine. He was descended from the English Birkbecks, a Quaker family with an interest in education. Mining in Australia and New Zealand