Harry Delamere is an adventurer.
That is how he likes to think of himself, although considering his station in life - he is a baronet entitled therefore to be addressed as 'Sir Harry' - he goes it one step further with 'gentleman adventurer'. He also, as we see when we first meet him, is referenced by some in authority as simply a 'traveller'. Also fun-sounding and exciting.
It certainly is preferable to other descriptions of him that an interrogator has during that first meet; "gambler" is one such noun, followed with a bit of disdain when that man, a police inspector, added that Delamere was "more or less bankrupt". We are fortunate the inspector added a bit more intel on him which painted an interesting picture: "Not married, but known to have been associated with a number of different ladies. And more than once linked to scandal. Theft at a country house in '03. Gossip about a duel a couple of years later. Various bits of murky business abroad.' He stretched the "murky" like a connoisseur. 'French police wanted you for killing a man, it says. Until it was hushed up somehow. Some political trouble in Constantinople. Another death.' He tutted heavily. He looked up from the papers again. 'No stranger to hot water.'"
This interview, or rather interrogation, takes place one evening in 1910 when Delamere was discovered on the dock next to the H.M.S. Thunderer, a British dreadnaught, standing over the slain body of a man named Sinclair, the knife which had killed him in the hands of Delamere and the suspect having no explanation as to why Delamere was on that pier and who else might have done poor in Sinclair, if not Delamere.
The spot of trouble that Delamere finds himself in, unfortunate but decidedly better than Sinclair's, will launch him on a new line of work, not out of his choosing but nevertheless one for which he will discover he is not too bad at. It will bring him to the attention of British Intelligence and force him to broaden his horizons; while he is no stranger to many of the major capitals of Europe, the parts of those cities he will now be visiting are considerably different than he is used to. And the number of people who will not be unhappy with his death will definitely increase.