Explorer

[Louis the fly]

Now that I have retired and have more free time I am studying for a degree course in Modern History.

I have recently been reading of the greatest British explorer the world has ever known, a forgotten and unsung hero...... Stanley.
Stanley discovered Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and a few other Stans.
When he finally retired from exploration he came back to England and founded Accrington Stanley football club.

A truly remarkable man.

[Captain Kong]

Hi Louis,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Accrington Stanley.
Sorry about this, I just could not resist it.
They are all failed States, and Acrington Stanley failed as a football team and was closed down for many many years. Open again now for football.
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. They were going to erect a statue in Denbigh Wales to him, but the PC people say he was a rascist, and shot Africans in the Congo. I guess he would if the tribes attacked him. He also found Livingstone.
.He was a Sailor, a Journalist, and an explorer.
.Here is off google,........
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Stanley was a Welsh-born American journalist and explorer, famous for his search for David Livingstone and his part in the European colonisation of Africa.

Henry Morton Stanley was born John Rowlands on 28 January 1841 in Denbigh, Wales. His parents were not married, and he was brought up in a workhouse. In 1859, he left for New Orleans. There he was befriended by a merchant, Henry Stanley, whose name he took. Stanley went on to serve on both sides in the American Civil War and then worked as a sailor and journalist.

In 1867, Stanley became special correspondent for the New York Herald. Two years later he was commissioned by the paper to go to Africa and search for Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone, of whom little had been heard since 1866 when he had set off to search for the source of the Nile. Stanley reached Zanzibar in January 1871 and proceeded to Lake Tanganyika, Livingstone's last known location. There in November 1871 he found the sick explorer, greeting him with the famous words: 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?' Stanley's reports on his expedition made his name.

When Livingstone died in 1873, Stanley resolved to continue his exploration of the region, funded by the Herald and a British newspaper. He explored vast areas of central Africa, and travelled down the length of the Lualaba and Congo Rivers, reaching the Atlantic in August 1877, after an epic journey that he later described in 'Through the Dark Continent' (1878).

Failing to gain British support for his plans to develop the Congo region, Stanley found more success with King Leopold II of Belgium, who was eager to tap Africa's wealth. In 1879, with Leopold's support, Stanley returned to Africa where he worked to open the lower Congo to commerce by the construction of roads. He used brutal means that included the widespread use of forced labour. Competition with French interests in the region helped bring about the Berlin Conference (1884-1885) in which European powers sorted out their competing colonial claims in Africa. Stanley's efforts paved the way for the creation of the Congo Free State, privately owned by Leopold.

In 1890, now back in Europe, Stanley married and then began a worldwide lecture tour. He became member of parliament for Lambeth in south London, serving from 1895 to 1900. He was knighted in 1899. He died in London on 10 May 1904.
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There are other reports of his behavior in the Congo ,on google. but to me they seemed to be using it as Character Assasination. These are the PC people of Denbigh.
Cheers
Brian.

[robpage]

My late aged Royal Marine Father shot a few Japanese , in 1945 , does that mean I am the son of a racist . Oh ! No ! I'll have to have Therapy to get over it , He did not go much on Yorkshire-men either , but I don't think he shot any of them

[j.sabourn]

96 years older than me same birthday, if we all meet upstairs will be able to share his birthday cake. Cheers JS ps he didn't discover Stanley Mathews as well did he. JS

[j.sabourn]

When you get this degree Louis, will you get all snobby and not talk to us. You could always try politics.. What years in history are you taking, you can chose you know, how about 1950 to the present. Cheers all the best you should have it by xmas JS

[Jim Brady]

Stanley searched darkest Africa looking for a lost tribe.After 10 years he gave up and came back to the UK where he found the lost tribe living in a big house in Upper Parliament Street,Toxteth,Liverpool 8.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

If you read some of the reports on GOOGLE ,Stanley was a "rascist" although that word didnt excist in those days.

I have Noticed that when we have a Hero in Britain certain PC people have to find something to destroy his image or his memory. What he did was par for the course in those days , so what is the problem with the PC people,?
Why dont they just concentrate on the Good things he did.?
Brian.
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. Here is one report from the TELEGRAPH destroying the mans character. by people who were Not There..............
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Rebecca Lefort
7:30AM BST 25 Jul 2010
Residents of Denbigh hope to celebrate his legacy with a £31,000 bronze statue, but have been told by academics that their plan is "appalling".


Welsh explorer and journalist Sir Henry Morton Stanley with his adopted son Kalulu Stanley was the Victorian explorer who trekked to the heart of Africa and greeted a fellow Briton with the words “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”

His supporters have raised the £31,000 needed to pay for the bronze monument, after a vote among residents of Denbigh found that a clear majority wanted to commemorate the town’s most famous son. A prime site has been chosen, a sculptor has been commissioned, and councils and the local Labour MP have lent their support.

But a group of up to 20 British and American academics is calling for the “appalling” project to be abandoned.

One opponent, Selwyn Williams, a lecturer in community development at Bangor University, said: “The people in Denbigh who’ve gone ahead with it have thought 'Who have we got who’s reasonably well known?’ without really thinking about what the man actually did.

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“What would be better is a statue of him as a child, holding hands with a Congolese child, or a museum where the issues are explored. For Denbigh to make a hero of this man is totally the wrong decision.”

Gwyneth Kensler, a county councillor and chairman of the HM Stanley Commemorative Group, said she welcomed the debate, adding: “This will only highlight our locally-based campaign to give Stanley the recognition that he deserves.”

Born in Denbigh in 1841, Stanley was sent at the age of five to a workhouse in nearby St Asaph where he stayed until he was 15. He emigrated to America aged 18, eventually becoming a journalist.

Dispatched by the New York Herald to find David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary who had gone missing in Africa, Stanley set off in 1871 on an eight-month, 7,000-mile trip accompanied by 200 porters. The goal was accomplished, but not without cost – deserters were flogged and a contemporary, Sir Richard Francis Burton, claimed: “Stanley shoots Africans as if they were monkeys.”

On a second trip in 1874, Stanley, in partnership with The Daily Telegraph, traced the course of the River Congo to the sea. In 1876 he made a deal with King Leopold II to travel back to the Congo, and as a result became associated with the Belgium king’s brutal regime, a link he spent years defending.

A later Stanley expedition was surrounded in controversy when it emerged that European officers had behaved with extreme cruelty, one offering a girl to cannibals. Stanley himself wrote that he had “destroyed 28 large towns” in the Congo. Once he allegedly cut off his dog’s tail, cooked it and fed it back to the dog.

After returning to Britain, Stanley married and served for five years an MP.

There are currently no statues anywhere in the world commemorating Stanley. One stood in Kinshasa, capital of what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, until it was pulled down in 1971; earlier this year British diplomats began considering whether to restore it.

Plans to commemorate Stanley in Denbigh surfaced after the centenary of his death in 2004. In a council consultation, 84 per cent of residents backed a permanent statue. Money has been pledged by Denbighshire county council, Denbigh town council, St Asaph town council and Cadwyn Clwyd, a development agency. Nick Elphick, a sculptor, has been commissioned.

However, planning permission is needed before the statue can be erected outside the town’s library, and objectors may attempt to halt the project at this stage.

Mrs Kensler said that a 2007 biography of Stanley by Tim Jeal, which depicted the explorer in a positive light, had changed many people’s opinions.

She added: “I want to concentrate on the positive. I feel he’s been maligned unfairly in the past. I even met someone from the Congo who told me they were delighted, and were full of praise for Stanley.”

Chris Ruane, Labour MP for Denbigh and a former history teacher, who was born in the HM Stanley Hospital in St Asaph, said: “I’m quite surprised that these American academics have picked on this.

“If we followed this criticism to the extreme then we wouldn’t have statues of any figures in the past that have both dark and light sides to their legacy, and then most cities wouldn’t have any statues. We shouldn’t be afraid to celebrate our heritage.”

Ashley Jackson, professor of imperial and military history at King’s College London and an expert in African colonial history, said: “It is easy to understand the point of view of the people of Denbigh celebrating a famous son. On the other hand, Stanley today certainly wouldn’t he held up as an unequivocal hero.

“I would compare it to putting up a statue of Cecil Rhodes [the colonial statesman who founded Rhodesia].

“Stanley had one of the biggest kill rates of all the great African explorers in terms of the number of people who died during his journeys, and you can’t gloss over the fact.”

Jeal, author of Stanley: The Impossible Life Of Africa’s Greatest Explorer, said: “Stanley was his own worst enemy because he exaggerated what he did and the number of people he shot.

“He was basically an unsophisticated person who had a hard life. Maybe the stereotype of him as a brute is so ingrained now it can’t be changed, but it isn’t right.

“It is sad that this sort of postcolonial guilt prevents people from actually trying to understand what happened.”

A spokesman for Denbighshire county council said: “Whilst we appreciate people will have different points of view, a questionnaire, which was widely circulated throughout the area as part of our consultation process, generated an extremely positive response.”
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. quote...“I would compare it to putting up a statue of Cecil Rhodes [the colonial statesman who founded Rhodesia].
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There is a large statue of Cecil Rhodes in the Park above Cape Town, arm and finger pointing to the north, the inscription is......
"YOUR HINTERLAND IS THERE" There is no problem so far with that one. ..........Yet!

[Louis the fly]

If by chance you ever visit Skegness there is a fish and chip shop also discovered by Stanley called Stan's Plaice.

[Jim Brady]

Do you think he may have brought tobacco back to Liverpool and put it into a dock shed which then became the Stanley Tobacco Warehouse.
Regards.
Jim.B.

[Captain Kong]

One of my Tahitian friends in Papeete is called Stanley , I wonder if he is related, as Stanley is not a Polynesian name.
Here he is . I will be back with him and his mates on 27 January.