Person    | Male  Born 4/5/1827  Died 15/9/1864

John Hanning Speke

Categories: Exploring

Countries: Africa

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.

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
John Hanning Speke

Commemorated ati

Speke

'Victoria Nyanza' means 'Lake Victoria'.

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Other Subjects

John Bate

John Bate

Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
Thomas Honey

Thomas Honey

Role on the lost expedition: Officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
Thomas McConvey

Thomas McConvey

Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
George J. Cann

George J. Cann

Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial
Thomas Johnson

Thomas Johnson

Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.

Person, Exploring, Tragedy

1 memorial