Journalist and explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley became world-famous for his explorations in Africa, and for his ‘discovery’ in 1871 of David Livingstone at Ujiji. This meeting gave rise to the popular quotation, “Dr Livingstone, I presume?”

Five months after taking his leave of Livingstone, and shortly after his arrival as a celebrity in London at the beginning of August 1872, Stanley became embroiled in controversy: a Welsh newspaper claimed that he was not an American (as was thought), but a Welshman by the name of Rowlands. They based their report on the testimony of a man who claimed to have sung Welsh songs with Stanley in Africa!

Stanley’s denial of this claim was robust, and expressed in a letter written to Charles Ollivant of Sale, Cheshire, on 22 August 1872, and subsequently published in numerous newspapers:

“I say I am an American & can prove it – by over ten thousand friends in the United States … I never knew a man named Evans, nor have I never sung a Welsh song not knowing anything of the language. My name is neither Thomas, Rowlands, Smith, Jones, nor Robinson, but plain Henry M. Stanley …”

This original letter was purchased by the National Library of Wales at auction in July 2009 (now NLW MS 23981E, f. 19).

With time, H.M. Stanley reluctantly acknowledged his birth at Denbigh, North Wales in 1841, where he had been baptized as John Rowlands, the illegitimate son of a farmer. Nine of his childhood years were spent in the workhouse at St Asaph, before he turned his back on Wales and emigrated to America in December 1858, aged 17. It was there that he adopted a new name and identity.

He continued to express bitterness towards the land of his birth until his death in 1904.

Maredudd ap Huw