If you have any interest in Scottish history then you ve probably heard of the Victorian era,
Scottish Missionary, hero and African explorer, David Livingstone,
but today I ve come to Lanarkshire to tell you part of his story that I bet you ve never heard.
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In the meantime, let me tell you a story What are you doing?
I m the Lanark town crier. Whenever someone gives out news or information in Lanark, I
ring the bell Well don t
If you re Scottish and my age you ve heard of David Livingstone,
but for the benefit some of the internationals and the two people watching who haven t yet
drawn their pensions, David Livingstone was a
boy from a humble weaving family just outside Glasgow who had intelligence,
a thirst for knowledge, determination, and a willingness
to accept danger and hardship who went on to became world renowned
and was finally laid to rest with kings and queens in Westminster Abbey.
Now that s a story in anyone s book. In a future video I m going to give you
more detail of his story, but as I was planning that
a lady called Helen Lamberton sent me a message about a wonderful part of
his story that I hadn t heard, and I thought I MUST tell you.
You might not think that I read comments, but I do.
Even when there are too many to respond to, I still try to read them.
This is the town of Lanark. From here in Lanarkshire David Livingstone
went to Africa three times:
first as a missionary with the London Missionary Society,
then as an explorer sponsored by the British government,
then as a private explorer thanks to crowdfunding.
Each time he delved deeper into the continent, but today s story relates to his third trip.
For some reason Victorians were always obsessed about finding out where the River Nile started,
so Livingstone set off after personal and private fund raising
to discover the source of the Nile. but after two years with no word back
people started to get worried. The question of whether Livingstone
was alive or dead received more clamour even than the demand to know who let the dogs out
and if that was how the ram ended up in the ramalamadingong.
Those questions might be answered sitting next to your gramophone or CD player,
but to find out whether Livingstone was alive or dead,
somebody was going to have to go to Africa. The founder and owner of the New York Herald, and
the man who transformed journalism of his day, was a Scotsman called James Gordon Bennet.
His success meant that his son could become the millionaire playboy, Gordon Bennett
who came back across the pond and, as well as carrying out incredible stunts,
would famously creep up on people in posh London restaurants and suddenly make a loud
noise in their ear Stop it!
and giving them a fright. To this day, when Londoners are surprised,
or frightened suddenly, they ll say Gordon Bennet .
There s a fact you didn t expect on a Scottish history tour.
Anyway daddy journalist Bennet decided that the scoop of the century
would be to find Livingstone and satisfy the expectant Victorian public.
The fact that he was prepared to commission reporter, James Henry Stanley,
and pour huge resources into an indefinite international expedition to unknown territory
shows just how famous David Livingstone was in his day.
To further illustrate the level of his celebrity more than a hundred years later,
when I grew up, the eventual meeting between Livingstone and Stanley was part of folklore.
There were sketch shows in the telly where a white man in a pith helmet would be lost and exhausted,
hacking his way through the jungle. He d come into a clearing and
find another white man to whom he d utter the immortal words .
That s right Dr Livingstone I presume.
This would be the springboard for a hundred different punchlines.
People who hadn t met for a long while might see each other in the street and one might say:
Ah, Willie McDonald I presume. And both knew exactly the famous
event to which reference was being made. I m curious about today s audience.
Can you let me know in the comments section if you d heard of David Livingstone,
if you know about this meeting with Stanley and your age and location in the world.
Now if that s too much information for your comfort, then tell me
what you are comfortable to reveal, but it would be interesting to know the geography
and age range that still resonates with. Now Stanley spends months with Livingstone,
sharing some of his trials and challenges of exploration before heading back home,
but firmly ingrained in folklore is that initial meeting near Lake Tanganyika where,
after months of searching, Stanley finds Livingstone and says:
Dr Livingstone I presume. He explains that he s been searching for
Livingstone for ages and Livingstone says: But I wasn t lost.
but that s not quite how it happened and that s why I ve brought you to Lanark today
Let s head down here
Prompted by Helen Lamberton, who I mentioned, I did a wee bit of digging,
and now I m here in Castlegate in Lanark to do a bit of exploring for myself.
Stanley didn t just swan off to search for the Scottish searcher who
was searching for the source of the Nile. He wasn t roaming in the jungle gloaming
in a kilt, a walking staff and a glengarry hat. He was Welsh American for goodness sake.
He was wearing a Stetson with a miner s lamp on front
seriously, he had a whole team of translators, carriers and guides.
Livingstone commented on how grand the expedition seemed when they first came upon him and
Henry Morton Stanley wasn t even the first person to come upon or greet the renowned explorer.
That was one of his translators; a young Palestinian boy called Selim
Hishmeh who hailed from Jerusalem and spoke Arabic, Swahili and English,
who reported to Stanley: I see the Doctor, sir. Oh what
an old man! He has got a white beard. Apparently, this young lad was such a
stalwart of the trip that when it was all over and they were back at Port Said,
Stanley paid the lad 17000 in today s terms.
Over the succeeding years Selim Hishmeh seems to have developed a career travelling round
giving talks about his experiences with Stanley in the search for Dr David Livingstone .
He s certainly recorded doing just that along the east coast of the USA in the 1880s.
It would be crazy to think that he didn t do the same here in the UK.
He s certainly recorded giving a talk at a YMCA in Stonehouse, ten miles from here, in 1883.
In the 1891 census he s registered as lodging in this street with a family called Ritchie.
He also later recorded as lodging with a Miss Purdie here in Wide Close.
He studied medicine at Edinburgh University. and went on to be a doctor.
They tell me that he went around the place in his traditional dress,
which must have been a colourful sight in Victorian Lanarkshire.
Here at the David Livingston Birthplace Museum they have a jacket, waistcoat and skullcap
worn by the man who first found David Livingstone when he wasn t lost.
Once qualified Selim practiced as a doctor in the town and surrounding area
and continued to give talks on his experiences as an explorer with Stanley and Livingstone.
He died here on 29th June 1910 at the age of 51.
Not in Premiere, 107 High St wasn t always a mini market
Don t click away yet. We ve got one last bit of exploring to do.
In the deepest depths of the Lanarkshire jungle
we find the grave of Dr Selim Hishmeh and it makes me think.
David Livingstone, a lad from Lanarkshire, trained as a doctor, then went to Africa
where he tended the sick and became an explorer and there he died.
Selim Hishmeh became an Explorer in Africa, then came to Scotland,
trained as a doctor then tended the sick before he died here in Lanarkshire.
Maybe the world has its own way of achieving balance.
If you d like a story about another aspect of Scottish history that people never mention
then there s one coming up on screen now Tha mi