john hanning speke was the british indian army officer who reached lake victoria.
john hanning speke was the british indian army officer who reached lake victoria.
british indian army officer who reached lake victoria?
john hanning speke
together with james augustus grant, speke left portsmouth on 27 april 1860 and departed from zanzibar in october 1860. the expedition approached the lake from the south west but grant was often sick and was not able to travel with speke much of the time. as during the first trip, in this period of history, arab slave traders had created an atmosphere of great distrust towards any foreigners entering central africa, and most tribes either fled or fought when encountering them as they assumed all outsiders to be potential slavers. lacking a great deal of guns and soldiers, the only thing the expedition could do was make peace offerings to locals, and both men were severely delayed and their supplies depleted by demands for gifts and passage fees by smaller local chieftains. after numerous months of delays speke reached lake victoria on 28 july 1862, and then travelled on the west side around lake victoria but only seeing it from time to time; but on the north side of the lake, speke found the nile flowing out of it and discovered the ripon falls. whilst being at the court of muteesa i, the kabaka (or king) of buganda, the local kingdom, who treated speke with kindness, he was given two girls of about 12 and 18 out of the entourage of the queen mother. speke took a serious liking to the elder, meri, whom he fell in love with, according to his diaries (which were redacted when they were published as books later). while meri proved loyal to speke and fulfilled her task at being a "wife" as commanded by the queen mother, she showed no emotional attachment to speke, and this left speke heart-broken because he sought a relationship of mutual emotional feelings. speke spent several months at the court of mutesa and when he had given up winning mere's heart, tried to arrange a better relationship for mere with another man, without success it seems. finally, given permission by mutesa in june 1862 to leave, speke then travelled down the nile now reunited with grant. because of travel restrictions placed by the local chieftains, slave raiding parties, tribal wars and the difficulty of the terrain, speke was not able to map the entire flow of the nile from lake victoria north. why he did not make more efforts to do so is not clear, but the enormous hardships of the journey must have played a large role. by january 1863 speke and grant reached gondokoro in southern sudan, where he met samuel baker and his "wife". (her name was florence von sass and she had been rescued by baker from a slave market in vidin during a hunting trip in bulgaria.) speke had expected to meet john petherick and his wife katherine at gondokoro, as they had been sent by the rgs south along the nile to meet speke and grant. however the pethericks were not there but on a side expedition to trade ivory, as they had run out of funds for their expedition. this caused some hard feelings between pethrick and speke, and baker played into this so he could assume a greater role as an explorer and co-discoverer of the nile. speke, via baker's ship, then continued to khartoum from which he sent a celebrated telegram to london: "the nile is settled."
john hanning speke
roger wilson (indian army officer)









































general sir roger cochrane wilson (26 december 1882 – 5 february 1966) was a senior british indian army officer who went on to be military secretary to the india office.









































section::::early life and education.









































wilson was born in 1882, the son of colonel frederick alexander wilson, who was also an officer in the british indian army, and louisa agnes marshall. he attended wellington college in berkshire and the royal military academy sandhurst.









































section::::military career.









































wilson was commissioned into the cheshire regiment in 1901. he transferred to the 117th mahrattas in 1904.
roger wilson (indian army officer)