Stanhope Templeman Speer (20 October 1823 – 9 February 1889) was a British

physician A physician, medical practitioner (British English), medical doctor, or simply doctor is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the Medical education, study, Med ...

and

mountain climber Mountaineering, mountain climbing, or alpinism is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas that have become mounta ...

. Speer worked at

Brompton Hospital Royal Brompton Hospital is the largest specialist heart and lung medical centre in the United Kingdom. It is managed by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. History Consumption in the 19th century In the 19th century, consumption was a co ...

in London and specialized in treating chest diseases. He has been described as the first physician to describe mountain sickness in a medical journal. In 1844 he was the first man to climb the

Mittelhorn The Mittelhorn (3,702 m) is a peak in the Swiss Alps close to the village of Grindelwald. It is the highest of the three composing the Wetterhorner massif A massif () is a principal mountain mass, such as a compact portion of a mountain ...

, the highest summit of the

Wetterhorn The Wetterhorn (3,690 m) is a peak in the Swiss Alps towering above the village of Grindelwald. Formerly known as Hasle Jungfrau, it is one of three summits on a mountain named the "Wetterhörner", the highest of which is the Mittelhorn (3,70 ...

Switzerland Switzerland, officially the Swiss Confederation, is a landlocked country located in west-central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the south, France to the west, Germany to the north, and Austria and Liechtenstein to the east. Switzerland ...

. Speer was a spiritualist and friend of the medium William Stainton Moses. In the 1870s, Moses resided with Speer and his wife and tutored their son. Speer was an early member of

The Ghost Club The Ghost Club is a paranormal investigation and research organization, founded in London in 1862. It is believed to be the oldest such organisation in the world, though its history has not been continuous. The club still investigates mainly gh ...

and the

Society for Psychical Research The Society for Psychical Research (SPR) is a nonprofit organisation in the United Kingdom. Its stated purpose is to understand events and abilities commonly described as psychic or paranormal. It describes itself as the "first society to condu ...

. He was a member of the British National Association of Spiritualists. Spence, Lewis. (2006 edition, originally published 1920). ''An Encyclopaedia of Occultism''. Cosimo. p. 80. His son Charlton Templeman Speer who became a famous composer, was also a spiritualist.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Speer, Stanhope Templeman 1823 births 1889 deaths 19th-century English medical doctors English spiritualists British parapsychologists