Gringo Revolutionary: The Amazing Story of Carel ap Rhys Price" by John Humphries

John Humphries unearths the amazing story of Carel ap Rhys Pryce from his origins in south Wales, through his adventures in South Africa and America, where he eventually becomes generalissimo of the Magonista revolutionaries in Mexico. Apparently almost called 'General Scallywag', the book is based on five years of personal research by Humphries that began after hearing an intriguing comment whilst on a visit to Alabama about a 'Welsh guy . . . who caused a lot of trouble around the (Mexican) border'. The Welsh guy (and Scallywag) in question was Carel ap Rhys Pryce, a distant descendent of none other than Owain Glyndwr. Like his more famous ancestor, Pryce also had revolutionary tendencies. Humphries pieced together the story of how he led a socialist army of mercenaries across the Sonoran desert in 1911 to capture the border town of Tijuana, so alarming the US authorities that they sent 20,000 troops to the border to contain the uprising.

John Humphries unearths the amazing story of Carel ap Rhys Pryce from his origins in south Wales, through his adventures in South Africa and America, where he eventually becomes generalissimo of the Magonistarevolutionaries in Mexico.

John Humphries (no, not that one) obviously has a love for both untold history and swashbuckling adventure. Gringo Revolutionary is his second book in a genre that could be described as docu-adventure. His first, The Man from the Alamo - Why the Welsh Chartist Uprising of 1939 Ended in a Massacre, had a title which really said it all. Gringo Revolutionary leaves a little more to the imagination, even with its promising subtitle, The Amazing Adventures of Carel ap Rhys Pryce.

Exciting stuff, and an adventure too for the author. In a recent interview he described a close call with some Mexican quicksand, being mistaken for drug smugglers by armed Mexican Indians, and paying $50 to an aged informant for information about Pryce that he was unable to understand. John Humphries, who in less adventurous days was editor of The Western Mail, is willing to go to extraordinary lengths for a story.’ - Michael Nobbs - A review from www.gwales.com, with the permission of the Books Council of Wales.

‘This is a well-researched history and biography of "the amazing adventurer" Caryl Ap Rhys Pryce, a Welsh Soldier of Fortune, who among other lifelong warfare escapades, led a revolutionary ragtag army in a few key battles of Baja California in 1911. After defeating some demoralized Mexican federal troops, he proclaimed the temporarily held lands conquered as a separate nation of which he was a leader. He was a flamboyant and colorful character in Welsh history, as well as the history of Baja California, and many other places worldwide. The work is informative as well as interesting and presents a good portrait of a charismatic professional warrior. Although he was a retired British Army officer, he was paradoxical because at times he fought on the sides of anti-imperialists, like the peasant revolutionaries inspired by the Baja Magonistas, who were Marxists. Later during the First World War, he reenlisted and fought again with the British Army. Good book about a little-known Welsh historic figure.’

‘Fascinating. Pryce could be Flashman’ – Amazon reviewer