John Moray Stuart-Young

Born John James Young in the slums of Manchester, Stuart-Young was poorly educated and treated badly by those around him.

[1] After having been caught stealing money from a gas-mantle works, apparently to help establish himself as something of a literary gentleman, Stuart-Young was arrested and spent six months in prison.

[2] He later spent many years in Africa, in such diverse places as Sierra Leone, Grand Bassa in Liberia, Conakry in French Guinea and later, Onitsha on the Niger River.

[3] According to Stuart-Young, it was a photograph by Frederick Rolfe of a nude Egyptian boy that awoke in him, a schoolboy of fourteen, a fascination for Africa.

Stuart-Young married twice, both times to English women: Annie Knight in 1908 and Nellie Gibson Etheridge Young in 1919.

He was given a lavish funeral by his friends and employees in Africa, where 10,000 Igbo mourners lined the streets for ceremonies which extended over four days.