Figure to assemble and paint
Ref.: 9 – CRV
Weight: 150 grs.
Material: White Metal
Number of Pieces: 12
Historical Review:

HORATIO HERBERT KITCHENER. 1ST EARL KITCHENER – 1901. Ref.: 9 – CRV

British military officer and politician, born on 24 June 1850 in Ballylongford (County Kerry, Ireland) and died on 5 June 1916 in the Orkney Islands after his cruiser hit a mine. He was Minister of War during World War I, but during his long military and political career he was stationed in Egypt, South Africa and India, including the Battle of Omdurman, the Fashoda Incident and the Anglo-Boer War.

Kitchener studied at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and his brilliant military career began in Palestine, Egypt and the Sudan, where he was appointed captain in 1883 and governor-general in 1886; he was subsequently posted to Egypt as adjutant general in the city of Cairo. In 1892 he was appointed sirdar (‘commander-in-chief’) of the Egyptian Army and commanded from 24 August 1898 the Anglo-Egyptian military campaign against the Mahdist rebels, who had occupied Khartoum and part of Sudanese territory since 1881, The campaign ended with victory on 2 September at the Battle of Omdurman and the reconquest of all Sudanese territory, which became an Anglo-Egyptian condominium, with Kitchener – named Baron Kitchener of Kharthoum and Aspall – as Governor General. He immediately had to halt the advance of French troops led by General Marchand who sought to link the East African colonies (Somalia) with the Atlantic coast (Senegal). The meeting took place at Fashoda on 18 September and was the beginning of a tense period of stalemate, known as the Fashoda Incident, in which the parties involved (French, British and Egyptians) claimed possession of the site. The conflict ended on 4 November when Delcasse, the French minister, yielded to pressure and ordered Marchand to leave Sudanese territory.

In 1899 he was replaced as Governor of Sudan by Sir Reginald Wingate and was sent to the Boer War, where he acted as Commander-in-Chief from November 1900. From this time onwards he fought guerrilla warfare with brutal and controversial methods, such as burning Boer farms and internment of children and women in concentration camps. Kitchener’s tactics had the desired effect and the war slowly swung to the British side until, on 31 May 1902, by the Treaty of Vereenging, one of whose signatories was Kitchener himself, the Boers accepted the loss of their independence and became British citizens. After this triumph, Kitchener returned to England, where he was made a Viscount in July 1902.

His next posting was to India, where he served from 1902 as commander-in-chief of the British forces, with the task of reorganising the army to prevent external aggression, which was more feared than internal rebellion. During an early period he had a major dispute with Lord George Cuzon, Viceroy of India, over control of the Indian Army, a dispute that ended on 16 August 1905 with Cuzon’s resignation after the British Cabinet supported Kitchener. Kitchener’s failure to be appointed Viceroy in Cuzon’s place was a source of great frustration, although he continued to hold his post until 1909. In September 1911 he accepted the post of proconsul to Egypt, where he remained until the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

After the outbreak of this conflict, Kitchener held the portfolio at the British War Office and was promoted to Field Marshal. Kitchener predicted a long war, contrary to the opinion of the majority of the Cabinet who expected it to be a short one, in which large numbers of combatants would be needed. Initially, his efforts focused on recruiting as many volunteers as possible and on training professional soldiers who went on to form a group known as the Kitchener forces. Together with Winston Churchill, he planned the British attack on the Dardanelles and was involved in the strategy for the so-called Battle of Gallipoli, which took place between 25 April 1915 and 8 February 1916 and resulted in the defeat of the British army. The failure of this offensive led to Churchill’s dismissal and the idea of a certain military ineptitude of the Allied army spread. Kitchener died on 5 June 1916, when the cruiser ‘HMS Hampshire’, which was taking him to Russia on a mission of his own, was sunk near Orkney by a German mine. Remarkably, after his death, a Canadian town was renamed Kitchener in 1916 in his honour.

Kitchener wear khaki drill service dress, introduced for overseas from 1896 in emulation of the Indian practice adopted in 1885. He wears the new Wolseley helmet worn only by officers only in the 1898 Sudan campaign.

In some Omdurman photographs, Kitchenr’s khaki drill appears bleached to a very pale, near-white colour