Explorer, born in Bideford, Devon, SW England, UK. He served in India, and in 1856 went with Burton to search for the equatorial lakes of Africa. They discovered L Tanganyika (1858), then Speke travelled on alone, finding the lake he named Victoria, and saw in it the headwaters of the Nile. Back in England, his claims to have discovered the source of the Nile were doubted, and so a second expedition set out (18603). On his return, his claims were again challenged, and he was about to defend his discovery when he was killed in a shooting accident.
The party was attacked and Burton and Speke were both severely wounded. Speke was captured and stabbed several times with spears before he was able to free himself and escape. Speke returned to England to recover and then served in the Crimea War.In 1856, Speke and Burton made a voyage to East Africa to find the great lakes which were rumoured to exist in the center of the country. Speke suffered severely when he became temporarily deaf after a beetle crawled into his ear and he had to remove it with a knife. After an arduous journey the two became the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika (although Speke was still blind at this point and could not properly see the lake). Speke thus went alone, and found the lake, which he christened Lake Victoria.
Speke returned to England before Burton, and made their voyage famous in a speech to the Royal Geographical Society where he claimed to have discovered the source of the Nile. A further rift was caused when Speke was chosen to lead the subsequent expedition without Burton.
Together with James Augustus Grant, Speke left from Zanzibar in October 1860. When they reached Uganda Grant travelled north and Speke continued his journey towards the West. Speke reached Lake Victoria on July 28 1862 and then travelled on the west side around Lake Victoria without actually seeing much of it, but on the north side of the lake, Speke found the Nile flowing out of it and discovered the Rippon Falls. Speke then sailed down the Nile and he was reunited with Grant.
Speke's voyage did not resolve the issue, Burton claimed that because Speke had not followed the Nile from the place it flowed out of Lake Victoria to Gondokoro, he could not be sure they were the same river. A debate was planned between the two before the Royal Geographical Society on September 16, 1864, but Speke died just one day before from a self-inflicted gun-shot wound. Speke was buried in Dowlish Wake, Somerset, the ancestoral home of the Speke family.
The film Mountains of the Moon (1990) (starring Scottish actor Iain Glen as Speke) related the story of the Burton-Speke controversy. The film hints at a sexual intimacy between Burton and Speke. It also vaguely portrays Speke as a closeted homosexual.
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