John Hanning Speke (1827-1864) made three exploratory trips to Africa, the first two (1854-55, 1857-59) accompanying Sir Richard Francis Burton. He returned there in 1860 with his friend and fellow Indian army officer James Augustus Grant (1827-1892) on an expedition organized by the Royal Geographic Society and supported by the British government.

On 28 July 1862, Speke reached the point where the White Nile left Lake Victoria, naming it Ripon Falls—and establishing in his mind the veracity of his claim that the river began there. His and Grant’s successes are undisputed.  They were the first Europeans to cross equatorial eastern Africa, and their explorations added more than 500 miles to the known geography of the area.