Field Marshal Lord Kitchener
- Style
- Walrus
- Peak Era
- 1910s
- Born
- 1850
- Hall of Fame
- Inducted 2024
- Fan Votes
- 0 legendary · 0 meh
About Field Marshal Lord Kitchener
Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850–1916) was a British Army officer whose career ran through Egypt, the Sudan, South Africa, and India. He became a national figure after the 1898 campaign that retook Khartoum, and later served as commander-in-chief during the latter part of the Second Boer War, a period that included harsh measures still debated by historians.
At the outbreak of World War I he was appointed Secretary of State for War. Unlike many contemporaries he predicted a long conflict and pushed for a mass volunteer army, the "New Armies" often called Kitchener's Army.
He died in 1916 when the cruiser carrying him to Russia struck a mine off the Orkney Islands.
Why the Stach Became Iconic
Kitchener's mustache was enormous, dark, and swept outward in a broad, horizontal spread that practically filled the lower half of his face. On the 1914 recruiting poster, with his pointing finger and direct stare, it became one of the most recognizable images of the twentieth century.
He is here because no mustache in military history has been reproduced, parodied, and imitated more often.
Notable Moments
- Sudan campaign and Omdurman (1898)
- Second Boer War (1899–1902)
- Secretary of State for War (1914–1916)
- "Your Country Needs You" recruiting poster (1914)
- The famous poster design was drawn by Alfred Leete and first appeared as a magazine cover.
- The pointing-finger composition was later adapted for the American "I Want You" Uncle Sam poster.
- His death at sea in 1916 prompted a wave of public mourning in Britain.
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