Death in Neston

The last day of John Hanning Speke.

(I wrote a version of this story in Neston News some years ago,  but here it is again….)

John Hanning Speke

I first learnt of John Hanning Speke when I went to live and work in Uganda, and spent my first night in the Speke Hotel in Kampala.  Why was Speke noteworthy enough to have a hotel named after him?   And intriguingly for me some years later when I came with my family to live in Neston, what was Speke's connection with Neston?
 
It was Speke who, in 1863, became the first European to reach Lake Victoria and realise that this was where the Nile originated, demonstrating how the world's longest river flowed through a vast desert without being replenished. The River Nile is a huge river even as it begins its journey northwards towards Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea.   

Nile rapids in Uganda

(When I mentioned Speke's discovery to one of my students in Uganda, he said somewhat dismissively "We locals knew it was there all along!").
Speke had been travelling with his fellow explorer Richard Burton, seeking the source of the Nile, but Burton had become unwell, leaving Speke to carry on the search.  Speke found an enormous lake, which he named Lake Victoria, and was convinced that it was the source of the Nile, though he had not found the point where the river actually leaves the lake.  He quickly made this known and won instant fame.  Burton was more cautious, and jealous of the kudos which Speke had acquired. The outcome was that preparations were made for a showdown between the pair - a debate to be held in Bath at the Royal Mineral Water Hospital as part of the British Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting on September 16 1869. 

Speke knew that both David Livingstone and Burton thought he was wrong about Lake Victoria being the source of the Nile, and the debate would either be either a very public vindication or demolition of his findings. So he was not pleased with the plans, reacting to this news with the words: "If Burton appears on the platform at Bath, I shall kick him!"

At 11am on the day of the meeting, and with the room packed with an audience, the President of the Geographical Society, Sir Roderick Murchison, took to the stage. Shaken and emotional, he announced there would be no debate.  John Hanning Speke was dead!


Speke had been staying at Neston Park, home of his cousin George Fuller. The day before the debate, Speke went partridge shooting with his cousin. Speke was seen to climb onto a stone wall. A few seconds later there was a report and when George Fuller rushed up Speke's gun was found behind the wall in the field into which Speke had jumped. The right barrel was at half-cock: only the left barrel was discharged. Speke who was bleeding seriously was conscious for a few minutes and said feebly, "Don't move me." George Fuller went for assistance leaving his gamekeeper to attend him; but Speke survived for only about 15 minutes, and when Mr. Snow, surgeon of Box, arrived he was already dead. There was a single wound in his left side such as would be made by a cartridge if the muzzle of the gun were close to the body; the charge had passed upwards through the lungs.

Speke's death was ruled an accident, though there were some who believed that he had killed himself deliberately.  Speke’s untimely death had a disastrous effect on his reputation, and his absence allowed Burton to retell the story and nature of their joint expedition in a manner that favoured him and denigrated his former companion. And while Burton was knighted, Speke was denied the honour.  It wasn't until Henry Morton Stanley circumnavigated Lake Victoria in 1874 that Speke was vindicated and shown to have been right all along. He is commemorated with a large obelisk in Kensington Gardens, and a small memorial set in the wall near Neston where he had his fatal accident.

 (click on any picture to enlarge it)