Captain Arthur De Capell Broke was the founder of the Raleigh Travellers' Club, the immediate forerunner of the Geographical Society. The eldest son of Sir Richard de Capell Broke of Great Oakley in Northamptonshire, whom he succeeded in 1829, Sir Arthur Broke, who was born in 1791, had served in the army, and had all the spirit of an adventurous traveller. He was the author of ‘Travels through Sweden and Norway’ (1823), a work which gives a striking picture of the physical features of those northern lands. He also wrote ‘A Winter in Lapland’ (1827), and ‘Sketches in Spain and Morocco’ (1831).

Sir Arthur Broke conceived the idea of forming a most agreeable dining society composed solely of travellers. The world was to be mapped out into so many divisions corresponding with the number of Members, each division being represented by at least one Member as far as it might be practicable, so that the society collectively should have visited nearly every part of the known globe. He first communicated his idea to four friends, Colonel Leake, Mr. Legh, Captain Mangles, and Lieut. Holman, who warmly approved of it. They prepared a general list of the most distinguished travellers, and, a selection having been carefully made in accordance with the above principle, a circular was sent out in the summer of 1826, dated from the Alfred Club in Albemarle Street, and signed Arthur de Capell Broke.