Explorer. Born Devon. The first European, while on an expedition with Richard Burton to East Africa in 1858, to discover Lake Victoria. On a subsequent journey with James Grant in 1862, he confirmed its northern outlet as the source of the Nile. Burton queried whether Speke really had found the source of the Nile and the two fell out. Murchison arranged a debate between them. Two days before this debate Speke left a lunch where Burton was present, to go on a partridge shoot. Climbing over a wall he shot himself. Suicide was suspected but never proved. Since his death there have been suggestions that he was a repressed homosexual, although he is known to have fathered a child in Buganda, and even that he and Burton had had an intimate relationship.
Other Subjects
David Thompson
Fur-trader, surveyor and mapmaker. Born Dafydd ap Thomas at Marsham Street, London. He was chosen to be an apprentice to the Hudson Bay Company. Transferring to the North West Company in 1797 he em...
1 memorial
Celia Fiennes
Traveller and diarist. Born near Salisbury. Moved to join a sister's family in London in 1691. She explored England on horse-back at a time when travel was difficult and particularly so for a wo...
1 memorial
William Mark
Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
Robert Ferrier
Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
William Strong
Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial