A man of many tongues

By the time he died, Harold Williams spoke a staggering 58 languages.
The world has over 6000 but most of us struggle with more than one or two.
Indeed, he was listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s greatest linguist (although that title has since been overtaken.)
Williams was born on April 6, 1876, the oldest of seven sons. His father, the Reverend W T Williams, along with his family, had emigrated from Cornwall, England to New Zealand.
Williams himself said he wasn’t much into learning until at the age of seven, something snapped in his brain. He began to devour languages.
Before leaving Christchurch and Timaru Boys’ high schools he had managed to teach himself Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Maori, Samoan, Tongan, Fijian and other Polynesian dialects.
The family moved to Auckland where he hung out with sailors, learning their tongues.
He began learning Russian and Polish so he could read Russian authors, like Leo Tolstoy, without translation.
In 1900, Williams began a pilgrimage to the home of Tolstoy. He went first to Berlin where he studied and taught English part time, gaining his doctorate in languages.
He then began studying Slavic languages and became interested in Russian affairs. He became a correspondent for a news agency
Williams continued reporting for several years writing articles from the Russian Empire. He met Ariadna Tyrkova through left wing reform circles and married her. A political journalist, she was the first woman to be elected to the Russian Duma.
In 1914, at the outbreak of war, Williams was the only foreign correspondent to take part in Cossack raids, making him the chief source of information to the British Ambassador.
He and another man set up a British propaganda office in Petrograd where his encyclopaedic knowledge was invaluable. He foresaw the coming revolution in Russia and in 1917 he sent regular dispatches until a peace treaty was signed.
He and his wife were forced to flee and he was immediately recruited as part of the Committee on Russian Affairs.
He was sent by the Daily Chronicle to Switzerland and then back to Russia but was forced to flee again.
On his return from Russia, he taught himself Japanese, Old Irish, Tagalog, Hungarian, Czech, Coptic, Egyptian, Hittite, Albanian, Basque and Chinese. He mastered the Cunniform inscriptions and a book of 12,000 Chinese Mandarin characters but found himself jobless.
Then in 1921 he was appointed foreign editor of The Times, holding that position until his death on November 18, 1928 in London.
He is buried in Brompton Cemetery in London.