Plaque Wording: John Hanning Speke - Explorer (1827 - 1864) Speke was 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. This plaque was erected in 1995 by The Friends of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens