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
William Heather
Role on the lost expedition: Royal marine on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
William Hedges
Role on the lost expedition: Royal marine on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
Henry Peglar
Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
Solomon Tozer
Role on the lost expedition: Royal marine on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
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Metropolitan Borough of Paddington
An ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, governed by an administrative vestry. The parish was included in the area of responsibility of the Metropolitan Board of Works in 1855 and became part ...
1 memorial
W. E. H. Lecky
Historian. Born William Edward Hartpole Lecky in Newtonpark, County Dublin, Ireland. Initially he studied to be a priest in the Protestant Church of Ireland, but turned to historiography. His chief...
1 memorial
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