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
Thomas Johnson
Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
James W. Brown
Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
John Diggle
Role on the lost expedition: Petty officer on SS Terror. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
Sir Francis Drake
Sea captain, explorer and pirate. Born in Crowndale, near Tavistock, Devon. He spent his formative years in the house of his cousin Sir John Hawkins and by 1565 was voyaging to Guinea and the Spani...
6 memorials
Edward Whymper
Mountaineer and wood-engraver. Born at Lambeth Terrace, Kennington Road. He trained as a wood-engraver, producing alpine scenery drawings. He made the first ascent of many peaks in the Mont Blanc M...
1 memorial
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