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 Gregory
Role on the lost expedition: Officer on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
William Clossan
Role on the lost expedition: Able seaman on SS Erebus. See John Franklin.
1 memorial
Bartolomeu Dias
Portuguese nobleman who sailed around the Cape of Good Hope, the southern tip of Africa, in 1488, the first European known to do so since ancient times.
1 memorial
Robert Hunt
Vicar. Born circa 1568. He was chaplain to the Jamestown Settlement.
1 memorial
Previously viewed
Alexander Mckenzie at Finsbury Park
N4, Finsbury Park, McKenzie Gardens
Erected in 2019 and vandalised by the time we visited in 2023 - probably impossible to repair.
3 subjects commemorated
Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them