Sir Henry Morton Stanley GCB (born John Rowlands; 28 January 1841 â€"
10 May 1904) was a Welsh-American journalist, explorer, soldier,
colonial administrator, author and politician who was famous for his
exploration of central Africa and his search for missionary and
explorer David Livingstone, whom he later claimed to have greeted with
the now-famous line: "Dr Livingstone, I presume?" He is mainly known
for his search for the source of the Nile, work he undertook as an
agent of King Leopold II of Belgium, which enabled the occupation of
the Congo Basin region, and for his command of the Emin Pasha Relief
Expedition. He was knighted in 1899.Henry Stanley was born in 1841 as
John Rowlands in Denbigh, Denbighshire, Wales. His mother Elizabeth
Parry was 18 years old at the time of his birth. She abandoned him as
a very young baby and cut off all communication. Stanley never knew
his father, who died within a few weeks of his birth. There is some
doubt as to his true parentage. As his parents were unmarried, his
birth certificate describes him as a bastard; he was baptised in the
parish of Denbigh on 19 February 1841, the register recording that he
had been born on 28 January of that year. The entry states that he was
the bastard son of John Rowland of Llys Llanrhaidr and Elizabeth Parry
of Castle. The stigma of illegitimacy weighed heavily upon him all his
life.:17â€"19, 356The boy John was given his father's surname of
Rowlands and brought up by his maternal grandfather Moses Parry, a
once-prosperous butcher who was living in reduced circumstances. He
cared for the boy until he died, when John was five. Rowlands stayed
with families of cousins and nieces for a short time, but he was
eventually sent to the St. Asaph Union Workhouse for the Poor. The
overcrowding and lack of supervision resulted in his being frequently
abused by older boys. Historian Robert Aldrich has alleged that the
headmaster of the workhouse raped or sexually assaulted Rowlands, and
that the older Rowlands was "incontrovertibly bisexual." When Rowlands
was ten, his mother and two half-siblings stayed for a short while in
this workhouse, but he did not recognize them until the headmaster
told him who they were. Henry Morton Stanley Biography, NetWorth, Height, Age, Weight, Family, Married, Son, Daughter