Doctor's last resting place in Lanark

My interest was rekindled by a visit to the recently re-opened Livingstone centre in Blantyre. The exhibition, for the first time, gives prominence to the role of Dr Hismeh in re-establishing contact with Dr David Livingstone at Ujiji near the shores of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871.

Selim Hismeh was born in 1855 on the slopes of Mount Zion in Jerusalem to a Christian family.

Young Selim was to prove himself gifted in languages and, ultimately, he ended up in the employ of Henry Morgan Stanley.

He came to Stanley’s notice on the island of Zanzibar, aged 16 or 17. He would have picked up English as the British were increasing their presence in East Africa. However, it was his knowledge of Arabic which made him useful to Stanley.

Arabic was the most useful language in East Africa because of the slave trade, which the Arabs had been involved in for many centuries. Many of the Africans learnt Arabic and eventually a form of Arabic called Swahili evolved. Widely adopted, it enabled Africans to communicate with the slave traders and other African tribes.

It is said that Selim was the first person to meet Dr Livingstone who by then, in 1871, was in poor health; he died in 1873.

Selim was paid off in 1872 when Henry Morgan Stanley reached Port Said; Stanley gave him £35 – the equivalent of about £13,000 today. Selim, having heard that Stanley was making a considerable amount giving talks decided to go to America in 1881. His own lectures were well received, particularly as he wore Arab dress.

By 1883 Selim Hismeh was living in Lanark where he studied to be a doctor at Edinburgh University. He gained his licence to practice but it did not bring him happiness.

He lived a pretty solitary existence in Lanark, dying at 197 High Street in his fifties on June 29, 1910. His death was witnessed by James Mackenzie who put up his tombstone in St Kentigern’s cemetery.