Catalogue description Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum: Papers

These papers of the first Earl Kitchener of Khartoum cover his life and career from 1877 to his death in 1916. They fall into four main categories.

The first category are papers, official and private, connected with his surveys of Palestine and Cyprus, the Gordon Expedition and the conquest of the Sudan, the Boer War, Lord Kitchener's tenure of office as Commander-in-Chief, India, and his work as minister plenipotentiary in Egypt. Most of these papers pre-date the First World War.

The second category consists of papers dating from the First World War period accumulated by Lord Kitchener as Secretary of State for War and includes despatches from Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig in France and from Sir Ian Hamilton and General Birdwood in Gallipoli. There is also a full set of reports from Sir John Hanbury-Williams from the Russian Front.

The third category comprises the comparitively small amount of personal correspondence and papers that Lord Kitchener preserved, including several royal letters and some records relating to the Broome Park estate, Canterbury, Kent.

The fourth category contains material collected by Sir George Arthur when writing his biography of Kitchener. This was published in 1920 as 'Life of Lord Kitchener'.

Kitchener's private office papers as Secretary of State for War are in WO 159

Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, 1850-1916

in November 1959 Henry Herbert Kitchener3rd Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, 1919-