Arthur Jermy Mounteney Jephson (1859–1908)

** Arthur Jermy Mounteney Jephson (1859–1908) *’… *was a young adventurer and African explorer, who accompanied Henry Morton Stanley on the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 1887-1889… Jephson’s frank, sensitive and open-hearted diary from the expedition was published half a century after his death, and provides a valuable and disturbing record of the late Victorian African expeditions, of which this expedition was to be the last…’

Arthur Jermy Mounteny Jephson was a close family friend of James John Garth Wilkinson and his name is in both of James John Garth Wilkinson‘s 1895 address books at 22 Ryder Street, St James’s Street SW London, and again in the ‘Where is it?’ address book at 11 St. James’s Place W (address crossed out), (Swedenborg Archive __Address Book of James John Garth Wilkinson dated 1895. See also Swedenborg Archive __Address Book of James John Garth Wilkinson ‘Where is it’ dated 1.10.1892). Arthur Jermy Mounteny Jephson was also a friend of William Boericke in America. 

On 12th October 1894, James John Garth Wilkinson wrote to William Boericke from 4 Finchley Road:

‘… My Dear Friend, Allow hereby to introduce to you one of my dearest Friends whose name you doubtless know as the Rescuer of Emin Pasha Mr. Arthur Mounteney Jephson is known to me for many years, & is knit by tender memories to my family. I hope he will bring me good news of you all, & will see my little godson. Yours affectionately, J J Garth Wilkinson…’ (Swedenborg Archive K125 [2] Letter dated 12.10.1984 from James John Garth Wilkinson to William Boericke. See also Swedenborg Archive K125 [42] Letter dated 26.2.1894 from Robert Matheson to Garth Wilkinson).

On 2nd November 1894, James John Garth Wilkinson wrote to William Boericke from 4 Finchley Road:

‘… _Mr dear Dr. Boericke, First and Foremost I thank you for the Photograph of my dear little namesake…  This leads me to say that I have given my dear Friend Arthur J Mounteney Jephson a letter to you, with injunction to see G W Boericke, & report upon him. I wish Arthur would consult you, & get well of the consequences of Africa. But unless he does, you will kindly not mention that I spoke of his sometimes sufferings… (_Swedenborg Archive K125 [2] Letter dated 2.11.1894 from James John Garth Wilkinson to William Boericke)…’

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emin_Pasha_Relief_Expedition ’… *The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition of 1886 to 1889 was one of the last major European expeditions into the interior of Africa in the nineteenth century, ostensibly to the relief of Emin Pasha, General Charles Gordon’s besieged governor of Equatoria, threatened by Mahdist forces. Led by Henry Morton Stanley, the expedition came to be both celebrated, for its ambition in crossing “darkest Africa”, and notorious, for the bloodshed and death left in its wake…’ ‘… Jephson was a young ‘gentleman of leisure’ coming from the merchant marine, was hired on the quality of his face only, but paid, as did Jameson, £1,000 to the Relief Committee, in order to participate in the expedition.*..’