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Home / People / Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener

Historical person

Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener

1850–1916

Herbert Kitchener was a British army officer and imperial commander whose career stretched from the conquest of Sudan to the opening years of the First World War. Trained initially in surveying and intelligence work, he became commander of the Anglo-Egyptian army and led the campaign that defeated the Mahdist state at Omdurman in 1898. He then served in the Second Boer War, first under Lord Roberts and later as commander-in-chief during the guerrilla phase.

Kitchener’s Boer War command combined mobile columns, destruction of farms and the concentration-camp system in which many Boer civilians and black Africans were interned; appalling mortality made those policies permanently controversial. He later commanded in India and in 1914 became secretary of state for war. Recognising that the European conflict would require mass armies, he drove the recruitment of the volunteer formations known as Kitchener’s New Armies. He died in June 1916 when HMS Hampshire struck a mine and sank off Orkney.

Kitchener appears across military fiction set in Sudan, South Africa and the First World War, including G. A. Henty’s With Kitchener in the Soudan, Griff Hosker’s Omdurman and John Wilcox’s Fire Across the Veldt. The linked non-fiction includes Thomas Pakenham’s The Boer War, Saul David’s 1915 and Lawrence James’s Empires in the Sun, which place his career within the larger machinery and costs of British imperial warfare.

Periods

Periods linked to Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener

World War I1914–1918 CE

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (3 series)

Amelia Peabody in Order

by Elizabeth Peters 20 books 4.4(45,607)

The Amelia Peabody mysteries follow an independent Victorian traveller who becomes an Egyptologist, detective and member of a formidable archaeological family. Beginning in 1884 and continuing through the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, the novels combine excavation, antiquities crime, murder and imperial politics with the changing relationships…

All books in this series

Soldier of the Queen in Order

by Griff Hosker 6 books 4.5(8,768)

Soldier of the Queen follows the Roberts family through the late Victorian and Edwardian imperial army. The books move from Rorke’s Drift and Egypt to Sudan, oil interests, desert garrisons and pre-war diplomacy, showing imperial soldiering as a mixture of danger, ambition, family strain and long overseas service.

All books in this series

Simon Fonthill in Order

by John Wilcox 13 books 4.2(4,074)

The Simon Fonthill series follows an unconventional British officer and intelligence scout through the wars and crises of the late Victorian and Edwardian empire. Beginning in southern Africa in 1879, Simon Fonthill and his Welsh comrade ‘352’ Jenkins move from regular army service into scouting, diplomacy and irregular…

All books in this series

Standalone books

Standalone books featuring Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (2 books)

Non Fiction

Non Fiction featuring Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (3 books)

Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.