Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (/ˈkɪtʃɪnər/; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his involvement in the Second Boer War,[1][2] and his central role in the early part of the First World War.
The Earl Kitchener
H. H. Asquith
24 June 1850
Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland
5 June 1916 (aged 65)
HMS Hampshire, west of Orkney, Scotland
Henry Kitchener, 2nd Earl Kitchener (brother)
Sir Walter Kitchener (brother)
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United Kingdom
1871–1916
Commander-in-Chief, India (1902–1909)
British Forces in South Africa (1900–1902)
Egyptian Army (1892–1899)
Kitchener was credited in 1898 for having won the Battle of Omdurman and securing control of the Sudan, for which he was made Baron Kitchener of Khartoum. As Chief of Staff (1900–1902) in the Second Boer War[3] he played a key role in Lord Roberts' conquest of the Boer Republics, then succeeded Roberts as commander-in-chief – by which time Boer forces had taken to guerrilla fighting and British forces imprisoned Boer and African civilians in concentration camps. His term as Commander-in-Chief (1902–1909) of the Army in India saw him quarrel with another eminent proconsul, the Viceroy Lord Curzon, who eventually resigned. Kitchener then returned to Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General (de facto administrator).
In 1914, at the start of the First World War, Kitchener became Secretary of State for War, a Cabinet Minister. One of the few to foresee a long war, lasting for at least three years, and also having the authority to act effectively on that perception, he organised the largest volunteer army that Britain had seen, and oversaw a significant expansion of materiel production to fight on the Western Front. Despite having warned of the difficulty of provisioning for a long war, he was blamed for the shortage of shells in the spring of 1915 – one of the events leading to the formation of a coalition government – and stripped of his control over munitions and strategy.
On 5 June 1916, Kitchener was making his way to Russia on HMS Hampshire to attend negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II when in bad weather the ship struck a German mine 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of Orkney, Scotland, and sank. Kitchener was among 737 who died; he was the highest-ranking British officer to die in action in the entire war.
In 1874, aged 24, Kitchener was assigned by the Palestine Exploration Fund to a mapping-survey of the Holy Land, replacing Charles Tyrwhitt-Drake, who had died of malaria.[10] By then an officer in the Royal Engineers, Kitchener joined fellow officer Claude R. Conder; between 1874 and 1877 they surveyed Palestine, returning to England only briefly in 1875 after an attack by locals at Safed, in Galilee.[10]
Conder and Kitchener's expedition became known as the Survey of Western Palestine because it was largely confined to the area west of the Jordan River. The survey collected data on the topography and toponymy of the area, as well as local flora and fauna.[3]
[11]
The results of the survey were published in an eight-volume series, with Kitchener's contribution in the first three tomes (Conder and Kitchener 1881–1885). This survey has had a lasting effect on the Middle East for several reasons:
In 1878, having completed the survey of western Palestine, Kitchener was sent to Cyprus to undertake a survey of that newly acquired British protectorate.[6] He became vice-consul in Anatolia in 1879.[3][12]
Egypt[edit]
On 4 January 1883 Kitchener was promoted to captain,[3][13] given the Turkish rank binbasi (major), and dispatched to Egypt, where he took part in the reconstruction of the Egyptian Army.[6]
Egypt had recently become a British puppet state, its army led by British officers, although still nominally under the sovereignty of the Khedive (Egyptian viceroy) and his nominal overlord the Ottoman sultan. Kitchener became second-in-command of an Egyptian cavalry regiment in February 1883, and then took part in the failed Nile Expedition to relieve Charles George Gordon in the Sudan in late 1884.[6][14]
Fluent in Arabic, Kitchener preferred the company of the Egyptians over the British, and the company of no-one over the Egyptians, writing in 1884 that: "I have become such a solitary bird that I often think I were happier alone".[15] Kitchener spoke Arabic so well that he was able to effortlessly adopt the dialects of the different Bedouin tribes of Egypt and the Sudan.[16]
Promoted to brevet major on 8 October 1884[17] and to brevet lieutenant-colonel on 15 June 1885,[3][18] he became the British member of the Zanzibar boundary commission in July 1885.[3][19] He became Governor of the Egyptian Provinces of Eastern Sudan and Red Sea Littoral (which in practice consisted of little more than the Port of Suakin) in September 1886, also Pasha the same year,[3] and led his forces in action against the followers of the Mahdi at Handub in January 1888, when he was injured in the jaw.[3][20]
Kitchener was promoted to brevet colonel on 11 April 1888[3][21] and to the substantive rank of major on 20 July 1889[22] and led the Egyptian cavalry at the Battle of Toski in August 1889.[3] At the beginning of 1890 he was appointed Inspector General of the [Egyptian National Police|Egyptian police]] 1888–92[3][23] before moving to the position of Adjutant-General of the Egyptian Army in December of the same year and Sirdar (Commander-in-Chief) of the Egyptian Army with the local rank of brigadier in April 1892.[3][20]
Kitchener was worried that, although his moustache was bleached white by the sun, his blond hair refused to turn grey, making it harder for Egyptians to take him seriously. His appearance added to his mystique: his long legs made him appear taller, whilst a cast in his eye made people feel he was looking right through them.[24] Kitchener, at 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m), towered over most of his contemporaries.[25]
Sir Evelyn Baring, the de facto British ruler of Egypt, thought Kitchener "the most able (soldier) I have come across in my time".[26] In 1890, a War Office evaluation of Kitchener concluded: "A good brigadier, very ambitious, not popular, but has of late greatly improved in tact and manner ... a fine gallant soldier and good linguist and very successful in dealing with Orientals" [in the 19th century, Europeans called the Middle East the Orient].[27]
While in Egypt, Kitchener was initiated into Freemasonry in 1883 in the Italian-speaking La Concordia Lodge No. 1226, which met in Cairo.[28] In November 1899 he was appointed the first District Grand Master of the District Grand Lodge of Egypt and the Sudan, under the United Grand Lodge of England.[29][30]
Return to Egypt[edit]
In June 1911 Kitchener then returned to Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt during the formal reign of Abbas Hilmi II as Khedive.[76]
At the time of the Agadir Crisis (summer 1911), Kitchener told the Committee of Imperial Defence that he expected the Germans to walk through the French "like partridges" and he informed Lord Esher "that if they imagined that he was going to command the Army in France he would see them damned first".[79]
He was created Earl Kitchener, of Khartoum and of Broome in the County of Kent, on 29 June 1914.[76]
During this period he became a proponent of Scouting and coined the phrase "once a Scout, always a Scout".[80]
Death[edit]
Russian mission[edit]
In the midst of his other political and military concerns, Kitchener had devoted personal attention to the deteriorating situation on the Eastern Front. This included the provision of extensive stocks of war material for the Imperial Russian Army, which had been under increasing pressure since mid-1915.[115] In May 1916, the Chancellor of the Exchequer Reginald McKenna suggested that Kitchener head a special and confidential mission to Russia to discuss munition shortages, military strategy and financial difficulties with the Imperial Russian Government and the Stavka (military high command), which was now under the personal command of Tsar Nicholas II. Both Kitchener and the Russians were in favour of face to face talks, and a formal invitation from the Tsar was received on 14 May.[116] Kitchener left London by train for Scotland on the evening of 4 June with a party of officials, military aides and personal servants.[117]
Legacy[edit]
Kitchener is officially remembered in a chapel on the northwest corner of St Paul's Cathedral in London, near the main entrance, where a memorial service was held in his honour.[140]
In Canada, the city of Berlin, Ontario, named in respect to a large German immigrant settler population, was renamed Kitchener following a 1916 referendum.[141]
Since 1970, the opening of new records has led historians to rehabilitate Kitchener's reputation to some extent. Robin Neillands, for instance, notes that Kitchener consistently rose in ability as he was promoted.[142] Some historians now praise his strategic vision in the First World War, especially his laying the groundwork for the expansion of munitions production and his central role in the raising of the British army in 1914 and 1915, providing a force capable of meeting Britain's continental commitment.[4]
His commanding image, appearing on recruiting posters demanding "Your country needs you!", remains recognised and parodied in popular culture.[143]
In the 1972 movie Young Winston, Kitchener is portrayed by John Mills.[144]
In the 2021 movie The King's Man, Kitchener is portrayed by Charles Dance.[145]
Debate on Kitchener's sexuality[edit]
Kitchener was a lifelong bachelor. From his time in Egypt in 1892, he gathered around him a cadre of eager young and unmarried officers nicknamed "Kitchener's band of boys",[167] who included his friend Captain Oswald Fitzgerald, his "constant and inseparable companion", whom he appointed his aide-de-camp to Queen Victoria (1888–1896). They remained close until they died together on their voyage to Russia.[168] Rumour occasionally circulated that Kitchener was homosexual, and after his death a number of biographers suggested or hinted that he might have been a latent or active homosexual.[169][b]
Professor C. Brad Faught, chair of the Department of History at Tyndale University College, discusses Kitchener's sexuality in a 2016 biography. While acknowledging Kitchener's "vestigial femininity" in collecting porcelain and organising dinner parties, plus emotional repression typical of his class and time, Faught concludes that the absolute absence of evidence either way leaves "an issue about which historians can say almost nothing useful".[175] Biographer George H. Cassar argues that Kitchener's letters to his sister include evidence of heterosexual attraction and that if there were any credible evidence that Kitchener was homosexual, it would have been used by his many opponents during his lifetime.[169]
