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
John Sullivan
Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
William (Mole man) Lyttle
Known as the ‘Mole Man’ because he spent forty years digging a series of tunnels under his, and his neighbours' houses in Hackney. It was estimated that he had shovelled out over 100 cubic metres o...
1 memorial
1 memorial
Charles Best
Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
Robert O. Sargent
Role on the lost expedition: Officer on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial