Best known for his famous recruitment posters bearing his heavily moustachioed face and pointing hand over the legend, 'Your country needs you', as secretary of state for war at the beginning of World War I Kitchener organized armies on an unprecedented scale and became a symbol of the national will to win. Commissioned in the Royal Engineers, in 1886 Kitchener was appointed governor of the British Red Sea territories and subsequently became commander in chief of the Egyptian army in 1892. In 1898 he crushed the separatist Sudanese forces of al-Mahdi in the Battle of Omdurman and then occupied the nearby city of Khartoum, where his success saw him ennobled in 1898. In 1900 he became commander in chief of the Boer War, where he fought the guerrillas by burning farms and herding women and children into disease-ridden concentration camps. These ruthless measures helped weaken resistance and bring British victory. On returning to England in 1902 he was created Viscount Kitchener and was appointed commander in chief in India. In September 1911 he became the proconsul of Egypt, ruling there and in the Sudan until August 1914. When war broke out, Kitchener was on leave in England and reluctantly accepted an appointment to the cabinet as secretary of state for war. Flying in the face of popular opinion, he warned that the conflict would be decided by Britain's last 1,000,000 men. He rapidly enlisted and trained vast numbers of volunteers for a succession of entirely new 'Kitchener armies'. By the end of 1915 he was convinced of the need for military conscription, but never publicly advocated it, deferring to Prime Minister Asquith's belief that it was not yet politically practicable. In his recruitment of soldiers, planning of strategy and mobilisation of industry, Kitchener was handicapped by bureaucracy and his own dislike for teamwork and delegation. His cabinet associates did not share the public's worship of Kitchener and gradually relieved him of his responsibilities for industrial mobilisation and then strategy. He was killed in 1916 when HMS Hampshire was sunk by a German mine while taking him to Russia. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/kitchener_lord.shtml
Lord Kitchener lost at sea Mission to Russia on H.M.S. Hampshire Sunday May 7, 1916 guardian.co.uk With deep regret we record that Earl Kitchener, Secretary for War, went down with the armoured cruiser Hampshire, which was sunk on Monday evening west of the Orkneys. There is little or no hope of there being any survivors. Lord Kitchener was on his way to Russia, accompanied by members of his personal staff and officials of the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Munitions, for a discussion of military and financial questions. Mine or submarine? Lord Kitchener's journey From our special correspondent Lord Kitchener left London on Sunday night, a sleeping-saloon being attached to the eight o'clock train from King's Cross. As he passed through Edinburgh at four o'clock on Monday morning very few people were in the station, and only two or three of the higher officials knew - confidentially - that the Secretary for War was on the train. He arrived at a northern port later in the day. The official statement leaves it open to conjecture whether the Hampshire was sunk by a mine or torpedo. So far as the public knows, there has been no recent submarine activity in the neighbourhood of the Orkneys, but formerly the northern coast of Scotland was a favourite lurking-place for enemy submarines, and the fact that the Hampshire was passing to the west of the islands may be an indication of reasons for avoiding the directer route to the east. It would, of course, be perfectly light at eight o'clock in the evening. Indeed, in that high latitude there would be no darkness all the night through. Even in Edinburgh here the light never left the sky last night. Formerly the north coast of Scotland was a favourite resting-place for enemy submarines. The desolate and unpeopled shores abound with deep inlets which were natural refuges for small hostile craft until the navy made the locality so hot that they cleared out, not to return. The submarines bound to the west coast of England and Ireland take this route, and, if it was a torpedo that sank the Hampshire, it may have been a sheer coincidence which accounted for a submarine being on the line of the cruiser's course. The west coast of the Orkneys is famous for its line of high cliffs, and Admiral Jellicoe's message, which states that a heavy sea was running, must be intended to indicate the smallness of the chance for the survivors of the missing boats.
Ouch, that's a bit revisionist and judged from a viewpoint of 109 yrs... There were many reasons for the disease in the camps and the quote above mentions nothing of the "Blockhouse" system which was an integral part of forcing the Boers to the negotiating table. It is also a bit naughty for the Bolshevik Broadcasting Company to suggest that this was the ONLY way the Boers were fought... Nothing is mentioned as to WHY he had to go to Khartoum, ie to relieve the siege on that mis-adventurer Gordon May I suggest a through reading of the various biographies and tomes on the man and the period. He was not an angel, and did play the political game, but the quote (through no fault of Annies) is quite quite misleading
I have to say when I started delving into the Boer War ... I was shocked to find out about the British and their concentration camps .... Some 28,000 Boers perished in Kitchener's concentration camps - nearly all of them women and children. A report after the war concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 22,074 were children under 16) and 14,154 black Africans had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the concentration camps. In all - about 25% of the Boer inmates and 12% of the black Africans died (although recent research suggests that the black African deaths were underestimated and may have actually been around 20,000). However the precise number of deaths is unknown .... reports have stated that the number of Boers killed was 18,000-28,000 and no one bothered to keep records on the number of deaths of the 107,000 Black Africans who were interned in Concentration Camps ! I couldn't believe that this Kitchener ( who was supposed to be a Victorian soldier hero ! ) that I had learned about in school - was the same one who was responsible for all of this .......
And don't get me started on Gordon ...... if it hadn't have been for increasing British popular support for Gordon ( and letters to the Times from people who were on the spot !! ) who eventually forced William Gladstone to mobilize some support .... the shame of it is ......... that when they finally arrived at Khartoum on January 28, 1885 - they found the town had fallen two days earlier. The Ansar had waited for the Nile flood to recede before attacking the poorly defended river approach to Khartoum in boats - slaughtering the garrison - killing Gordon - and delivering his head to the Mahdi's tent. Gordon had acted on the defensive - by trying to clear his way of an attacking force and failing ...... because he had no fighting men to take the offensive. He found himself in a trap - with no way out ... if he had had a single regiment .... the front of Khartoum might have been cleared with ease - but his weakness in numbers encouraged the Arabs - and they gathered round in more and more numbers ...... until at last they crushed him !! But I digress ...............
Ahhh But should he have been there?? What were his ORIGINAL orders in going to Khartoum?? Why did he stay there??
Really? At that time?? Supposed to superintend the evacuation yes, but he stayed longer than he should to force the Mad Mhadi's hand...He should have moved ages before he did, and he didn't have the forces to defend a siege.
I could go on about this for days .... but we're off topic Scrim !! I'll just say this .... General Gordon's first job - was to get the people out of Khartoum ( fifteen thousand people in Khartoum needed to be sent to Egypt - widows and orphans - Europeans - civil servants - and a garrison of a thousand men ....... The first condition of evacuation was - that the government in the Soudan/Sudan was stable .... the only man who could establish that government - was Zebehr ! Gordon demanded Zebehr do this - and his request was decidedly refused ! He then had two alternatives - either to surrender absolutely to the Mahdi ........ or to hold on to Khartoum at all costs ! The siege lasted exactly three hundred and twenty days ! and when Gordon found - that through the treachery of his Egyptian lieutenant - Khartoum was in the hands of the Mahdi - he set out with a few followers for the Austrian consulate ! Recognized by a party of rebels - he was shot dead on the street and his head carried through the town at the end of a pike ..... amid the wild rejoicings of the Mahdi's followers No man deserves that ! Two days later the English army of relief reached Khartoum .......
OK back to Kitchener ................. !!!! On Monday 5th June 1916, about 1 to 1/2 miles off Marwick Head in Orkney, by 7.50 pm H.M.S. Hampshire had struck a German mine and sunk. According to an official MOD site the ships full compliment at the time of sailing was 655 men plus 7 passengers who were Lord Kitchener and his staff. The bodies of over 100 officers and men were recovered from the sea and were interred into one common grave where they now lay to rest at the Lyness Cemetery, Hoy, Orkney. That is with the exception of Lieutenant MacPherson and Colonel Fitzgerald. Lieutenant MacPhersonwas was onboard the Hampshire in his capacity as a Russian translator and was buried in a separate gave in Lyness Cemetery. The body of Colonel Fitzgerald was taken to Inverness and then transferred to London for burial at the Eastbourne (Ocklynge) Cemetery in Sussex. The body of Lord Kitchener was never recovered from the sea and only 12 men survived the sinking of the HMS Hampshire. http://www.hmshampshire.co.uk/ Lord Kitchener lost at sea ....... Mission to Russia on H.M.S. Hampshire Sunday May 7, 1916 With deep regret we record that Earl Kitchener, Secretary for War, went down with the armoured cruiser Hampshire, which was sunk on Monday evening west of the Orkneys. There is little or no hope of there being any survivors. Lord Kitchener was on his way to Russia, accompanied by members of his personal staff and officials of the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Munitions, for a discussion of military and financial questions. Mine or submarine? Lord Kitchener's journey From our special correspondent Lord Kitchener left London on Sunday night, a sleeping-saloon being attached to the eight o'clock train from King's Cross. As he passed through Edinburgh at four o'clock on Monday morning very few people were in the station, and only two or three of the higher officials knew - confidentially - that the Secretary for War was on the train. He arrived at a northern port later in the day. The official statement leaves it open to conjecture whether the Hampshire was sunk by a mine or torpedo. So far as the public knows, there has been no recent submarine activity in the neighbourhood of the Orkneys, but formerly the northern coast of Scotland was a favourite lurking-place for enemy submarines, and the fact that the Hampshire was passing to the west of the islands may be an indication of reasons for avoiding the directer route to the east. It would, of course, be perfectly light at eight o'clock in the evening. Indeed, in that high latitude there would be no darkness all the night through. Even in Edinburgh here the light never left the sky last night. Formerly the north coast of Scotland was a favourite resting-place for enemy submarines. The desolate and unpeopled shores abound with deep inlets which were natural refuges for small hostile craft until the navy made the locality so hot that they cleared out, not to return. The submarines bound to the west coast of England and Ireland take this route, and, if it was a torpedo that sank the Hampshire, it may have been a sheer coincidence which accounted for a submarine being on the line of the cruiser's course. The west coast of the Orkneys is famous for its line of high cliffs, and Admiral Jellicoe's message, which states that a heavy sea was running, must be intended to indicate the smallness of the chance for the survivors of the missing boats. http://www.hmshampshire.co.uk/
Lord Kitchener sailed from Scrabster to Scapa Flow on 5 June 1916 aboard HMS Oak before transferring to the armoured cruiser HMS Hampshire for his diplomatic mission to Russia. Shortly before 1930 hrs the same day, while en route to the Russian port of Arkhangelsk, Hampshire struck a mine laid by the newly-launched German U-boat U-75 (commanded by Curt Beitzen) during a Force 9 gale and sank west of the Orkney Islands. Kitchener, his staff, and 643 of the crew of 655 were drowned or died of exposure. His body was never found. The survivors who caught sight of him in those last moments testified to his outward calm and resolution. The same day, the last Division of Kitchener's New Army crossed the channel to take up its positions in Flanders and France where, eventually, and despite numerous setbacks, they helped to defeat Germany in 1918. Not everyone mourned Kitchener's loss. C. P. Scott, editor of the Manchester Guardian is said to have remarked that "as for the old man, he could not have done better than to have gone down, as he was a great impediment lately." Conspiracy theories The suddenness of Kitchener's death, combined with his great fame and the fact that his body was never recovered, almost immediately gave rise to conspiracy theories that have continued almost to this day. Fritz Joubert Duquesne, a Boer and German spy, claimed to have sabotaged and sunk the HMS Hampshire, killing Kitchener and most of the crew. According to German records, Duquesne assumed the identity of Russian Duke Boris Zakrevsky and joined Kitchener in Scotland. En route to Russia, Duquesne signalled a German U-boat to alert them that Kitchener’s ship was approaching. He then escaped on a raft just before the HMS Hampshire was destroyed. Duquesne was awarded the Iron Cross for this act. In the 1930s and 1940s, he ran the famous Duquesne Spy Ring and was captured by the FBI along with 32 other Nazi spies in the largest espionage conviction in U.S. history. The fact that newly-appointed Minister of Munitions (and future prime minister) David Lloyd George was supposed to accompany Kitchener on the fatal journey, but cancelled at the last moment, has been given great significance by some. This fact, along with the alleged lethargy of the rescue efforts, has led some to claim that Kitchener was assassinated, or, somewhat more plausibly, that his death would have been convenient for a British establishment that had come to see him as figure from the past who was incompetent to wage modern war. Given that Kitchener's death hit Britain like a thunderclap and was widely perceived as a disaster for the war effort, this interpretation seems far-fetched, to say the least. After the war, there were a number of conspiracy theories put forward, one by Lord Alfred Douglas, positing a connection between Kitchener's death, the recent naval Battle of Jutland, Winston Churchill and a Jewish conspiracy. (Churchill successfully sued Douglas for criminal libel and the latter spent six months in prison.) Another claimed that the Hampshire did not strike a mine at all, but was sunk by explosives secreted in the vessel by Irish Republicans. Probably the most spectacular Kitchener-related conspiracy was the effort in 1926 by a hoaxer named Frank Power to actually recover and bury Kitchener's body, which he claimed had been found by a Norwegian fisherman. He brought a coffin back from Norway and prepared it for burial in St. Paul's. At this point, however, the authorities intervened and the coffin was opened in the presence of police and a distinguished pathologist. The box was found to contain only tar for weight. There was widespread public outrage at Power, but he was ultimately never prosecuted.(*) Lord Kitchener at St Pauls .....
