Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener - Carlton Gardens, London, UK
N 51° 30.314 W 000° 08.046
30U E 698888 N 5709905
This blue plaque marks the residence where Earl Kitchener lived for two years in 1914-15.
Waymark Code: WME6YE
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 04/11/2012
Views: 5
The blue plaque reads:
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LCC
Field-Marshall
Earl Kitchener
of Khartoum K.G.
(1850-1916)
Lived here
1914-15
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The Spartacus Schoolnet website (visit
link) tells us the following about Kitchener:
"Horatio Kitchener, the third child and second son of
Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Horatio Kitchener (1805–1894), was born near
Ballylongford, County Kerry, Ireland, on 24th June 1850. According to Keith
Neilson: "His father was an unpopular, tenant-evicting, improving landowner, a
domestic martinet, and an eccentric who used newspapers instead of blankets in
bed."
Kitchener's mother suffered from tuberculosis and the family moved to
Switzerland in 1864. Kitchener attended an English boarding-school at Renaz.
Teased about his strange Irish accent, he devoted himself to his books, and
became fluent in French and German. In 1867 he moved to Cambridge to complete
his secondary education. He wanted to study at the Royal Military Academy. He
took the examination in January 1868, passing twenty-eighth out of fifty-six.
Kitchener was not a very talented student but on 4th January, 1871, he was
commissioned into the Royal Engineers. He spent the next two years at the School
of Military Engineering in Chatham.
Kitchener came to the attention of Brigadier-General George Richards Graves of
the War Office staff and was appointed as his aide-de-camp in 1873. The
following year he was seconded to the Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF).
Kitchener was a talented linguist and learnt Arabic during this period. He was
also respected as a skilled negotiator with local people.
In 1878 he was seconded to the Foreign Office and given the task of mapping
Cyprus. In June 1879 he was appointed military vice-consul, to Kastamonu
Province in Turkey. In March 1880 he returned to Cyprus at the request of the
new high commissioner, Robert Biddulph, and for the next two years continued his
survey.
Kitchener secured a posting to Egypt early in 1883, at the same time as being
promoted captain. In March 1884 General Charles George Gordon was under siege in
Khartoum. The British public called for action but it was not until November
that the Khartoum Relief Expedition under the leadership of Field Marshal Garnet
Wolseley began. Kitchener was an intelligence officer on the mission and he
continually pressed Wolseley to push forward more rapidly. By the time they
reached the city Gordon was dead."