Field-Marshal Earl Kitchener - Carlton Gardens, London, UK - Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com

The blue plaque reads:

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."