# Caryl Ap Rhys Pryce: Who?



## phildwyer (Oct 13, 2010)

I wonder why this interesting fellow isn't more widely known.  Doesn't even have his own Wikipedia entry...


"Tijuana's vice industry received a significant boost to its development during the town's occupation on May 9, 1911, by a group of approximately 220 insurrecto soldiers under the Welsh soldier of fortune Caryl Ap Rhys Pryce. Pryce commanded the so-called "Second Division" of the rebel group which operated in the Distrito Norte as part of the series of revolts undertaken by Ricardo Flores Magón and the Mexican Liberal Party from 1910-1911. The Magonistas aimed at the overthrow of the Díaz government and the creation of an anarcho-communist social order in Mexico. Pryce was forced to resort to any means possible for raising funds in order to continue the march on Ensenada, the remaining federal garrison in the region. The town's cantinas were reopened and permits granted to those entrepreneurs who wished to open casinos or gaming houses. On March 14, 1911, Pryce granted a concession to U.S. citizen W.J. Johnson for the establishment of a casino with dice games. This was followed by concessions for other games of chance, such as roulette, faro, poker, Klondyke, twenty-one and wheel of fortune. In addition to the sale of gaming house permits, the Magonistas also received 25 per cent of the winnings obtained from these sources. Pryce forwarded hundreds of dollars raised by these methods, as well as the sale of postcards and revenue from the town's customs house, to the Liberal junta headquarters in Los Angeles as a deposit for the purchase of arms and munitions.26

U.S. capitalists with extensive agricultural and ranching investments in the Mexicali Valley region, such as Harrison Gray Otis, owner of the Los Angeles Times, his son-in-law Harry Chandler, and C.D. Cudahy, head of the powerful Chicago meatpacker family, were alarmed at Pryce's capture of the border town, since the defeat of the remaining federal forces in the peninsula appeared imminent. Also concerned was John D. Spreckels, owner of the San Diego Union and San Diego Evening Tribune, as well as the San Diego-Arizona Railway, whose Mexican portion, as yet unfinished, ran through rebel-held territory. These magnates encouraged the Mexican government's efforts to crush the revolt and also persuaded the U.S. government to increase border security to prevent arms, recruits and other forms of aid from reaching the rebels.27

The fact that a free-booting soldier of fortune, who was of neither U.S. nor Mexican nationality, had given vice entrepreneurs a free rein in a town lying practically on San Diego's doorsteps was likely disturbing to California's moral reform movement leaders. The Second Division's control of the town, with its open invitation to businessmen to establish casinos and cantinas, was doubtless perceived to be a distinct setback for the moral crusade movement in southern California."

http://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/2002-3/frontier.htm


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## phildwyer (Oct 13, 2010)

There is a book about him, but it's out of print and not available on Amazon:

http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/book/9781903529188/Gringo-Revolutionary

All I can find out about him on the Web is that he was a Welsh "soldier of fortune," who became one of the military leaders of the anarchist Magonistas during the Mexican revolution.  Captured Tijuana, wanted to march on Ensenada and declare Baja California an independent socialist republic, but was somehow dissuaded or prevented from doing so.

Anyone know more?


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## editor (Oct 13, 2010)

phildwyer said:


> I wonder why this interesting fellow isn't more widely known.  Doesn't even have his own Wikipedia entry...


I think the idea is that the absence of a Wikipedia entry should be your cue to go and make one!


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## Geri (Oct 13, 2010)

Colin m Maclachan, in Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution, claims he ran off with the cash raised for the revolution.

er...here is his wiki page.


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## editor (Oct 13, 2010)

Geri said:


> er...here is his wiki page.


LOL.


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## phildwyer (Oct 13, 2010)

Geri said:


> Colin m Maclachan, in Anarchism and the Mexican Revolution, claims he ran off with the cash raised for the revolution.
> 
> er...here is his wiki page.



Thanks, my Google didn't find that for some reason.  Still not very extensive though, and leaves many questions unanswered--where was he born, for instance, and was he a sincere revolutionary or, as Wiki seems to suggest, an opportunist:

"He is believed to have served as an intelligent agent for the British crown at the time of the Magonista Revolution in Mexico during 1911 acting for British interests in hindering US influence in Central America.

He later became a Hollywood actor in the days of the silent screen, acting in a number of films he played himself in the 'Colonel's Escape', based on the story of the Magonista Revolution."

I think I'll try to get a hold of the book.


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## Ben Bore (Oct 14, 2010)

phildwyer said:


> Thanks, my Google didn't find that for some reason.



Helps if you spell his name correctly  

..but who knows how it's spelt as the English Wiki has it as Carol, while Spanish one has it as Carl.

Sound like a bit of a bastard, but it would interesting to know more though.


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## phildwyer (Oct 14, 2010)

Ben Bore said:


> Helps if you spell his name correctly
> 
> ..but who knows how it's spelt as the English Wiki has it as Carol, while Spanish one has it as Carl.



Strikes me as the kind of chap who might have kept his name fluid.

It seems he was also a Black and Tan, among other things.  Certainly a fascinating character, one has to wonder why he isn't better known.  Maybe he covered his tracks too well.


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## butchersapron (Oct 15, 2010)

There's an article in the Pacific Historical Review Vol 23, No.2 (May 1954) "Was It Revolution or Filibustering? The Mystery of the Flores Magon Revolt in Baja California," that has some useful info from a reactionary perspective.


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## phildwyer (Oct 18, 2010)

butchersapron said:


> There's an article in the Pacific Historical Review Vol 23, No.2 (May 1954) "Was It Revolution or Filibustering? The Mystery of the Flores Magon Revolt in Baja California," that has some useful info from a reactionary perspective.



Fascinating article.  It makes it clear that Flores Magon, at least, was a genuine anarchist--even compares him to Nechayev.  And Pryce comes out of it rather well too.


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## butchersapron (Oct 18, 2010)

Magon always was, there was never any question.


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## phildwyer (Oct 18, 2010)

butchersapron said:


> Magon always was, there was never any question.



I thought the article under-rated the Magonistas potential.  Didn't mention their operations in Texas/Chihuahua at all.


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## phildwyer (Dec 29, 2011)

So I finally got hold of his biography: _Gringo Revolutionary: The Amazing Adventures of Caryl ap Rhys Pryce _by John Humphries.  My God, what a complete and utter bastard he was.

I think we can safely say that he was never a committed Anarchist.  Spent most of his life rollicking around the British Empire as a soldier of fortune, kicking the crap out of various kaffirs, micks and wogs.  Ended up fighting alongside Villa and Magon through a typically bizarre series of events, and was responsible for (among many less savory activities) the events recorded in my avatar.

A truly frightening man.


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## Random (Dec 29, 2011)

Very interesting stuff. Where was he born, and where did he die? I'd be tempted to start looking into the county records on him if I was in Wales near his birthplace.


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## phildwyer (Dec 29, 2011)

Random said:


> Very interesting stuff. Where was he born, and where did he die? I'd be tempted to start looking into the county records on him if I was in Wales near his birthplace.



He was born in India, a scion of the Raj, but his family were the Pryses of Gogerdden, local rulers of Aberystwyth for over a thousand years--he was a descendent of Glyndwyr.  I think he died in Wales, but I don't want to skip to the end of the book.  His dates were 1876--1957.

So far I've reached his early twenties, which he spent in Cecil Rhodes's Natal Police, dynamiting the Mashona.  A later chapter is titled: "From the Ku Klux Klan to the Black and Tans" which pretty much gives you his flavor.


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## Random (Dec 29, 2011)

Jesus. So he was an upper class international mercenary, rather than a working class immigrant rebel.


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## phildwyer (Dec 29, 2011)

Random said:


> Jesus. So he was an upper class international mercenary, rather than a working class immigrant rebel.



Oh yes.  Basically he just loved war.  Not unlike Simon Mann and his lot.  There used to be loads of such people wandering around the Empire.


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