Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener - Early Life

Early Life

Kitchener was born in Ballylongford near Listowel, County Kerry, in Ireland, son of Lt. Col. Henry Horatio Kitchener (1805 – 1894) and Frances Anne Chevallier-Cole (d. 1864; daughter of The Rev. John Chevallier and his third wife, Elizabeth, née Cole). His father had only recently bought land in Ireland under a scheme to encourage the purchase of land after the recent potato famine. The year his mother died of tuberculosis, they had moved to Switzerland in an effort to improve her condition; the young Kitchener was educated there and at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Pro-French and eager to see action, he joined a French field ambulance unit in the Franco-Prussian War. His father took him back to England after he caught pneumonia after ascending in a balloon to see the French Army of the Loire in action. He was commissioned into the Royal Engineers on 4 January 1871. His service in France had violated British neutrality, and he was reprimanded by the Duke of Cambridge, the commander-in-chief. He served in Palestine, Egypt, and Cyprus as a surveyor, learned Arabic, and prepared detailed topographical maps of the areas. His brother, Lt. Gen. Sir Walter Kitchener, had also entered the army, and was the Governor of Bermuda from 1908 to 1912.

Kitchener, at 6'2", towered over most of his contemporaries.