Adventurer, explorer, member of parliament, and soldier, he served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth and was a pioneer of the English colonial empire in North America and the Plantations of Ireland. He was a half-brother of Sir Walter Raleigh (they had the same mother, Catherine Champernowne), and cousin of Sir Richard Grenville. Gilbert was one of the leading advocates for the mythical north-west passage to Cathay (present-day China), an area noted in great detail by Marco Polo in the 13th century for its abundance of riches.
