Kitchener, Horatio Herbert, Lord

(1850–1916)

   A British soldier best known as minister of war during World War I, Horatio Kitchener began his career as a colonial soldier. He led the Anglo-Egyptian expedition into the Sudan and retook Khartoum and defeated the Dervishes at Omdurman in 1898. He served as chief of staff during the Boer War before succeeding to overall command, fighting a harsh campaign punctuated by farm-burning and internment, which eventually brought British victory. He then became commander-in-chief of British forces in India.

   During World War I, Kitchener raised massive new volunteer armies, although he failed adequately to support the Gallipoli campaign in 1915. The extremely long hours he kept and his refusal to delegate responsibilities endeared him neither to other war planners nor to the politicians with whom he had to deal. By the standards of the Victorian era, he was a competent army administrator; the scale of a world war, however, stretched his abilities beyond their capacity.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Pollock, John. Kitchener. London: Constable, 2001;

    Royle, Trevor. The Kitchener Enigma. London: M. Joseph, 1985;

    Simkins, Peter. Kitchener ’ s Army: The Raising of the New Armies, 1914–16. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988;

    Warner, Philip. Kitchener: The Man behind the Legend. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1985.

   GREGORY FREMONT-BARNES