Lord Kitchener (1850 – 1916)
Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born in Ireland in 1850. He attended the Royal Military Academy in
Woolwich and volunteered to join a French field ambulance unit during the
Franco-Prussian War in 1970. He became
ill after a balloon flight across a battlefield and returned to Britain for
treatment.
Kitchener was commissioned into the Royal Engineers Regiment
of the British Army in January 1971. He became famous after the Battle of
Omdurman in the Sudan in 1898.
During the First World War, Kitchener was Secretary of State
for War and was responsible for the campaign to recruit volunteers into the
British Army.
On 5th Jun3 1916, Kitchener was drowned when the
ship he was travelling on to Russia – HMS “Hampshire” – hit a mine and sank.
A schoolboy wrote a poem in honour of Kitchener at the time
of his death and it was published in a local newspaper:
“Kitchener”
No stone is
set to mark his nation’s loss,
No stately
tomb enshrines his noble breast;
Not e’en the
tribute of a wooden cross
Can mark
this hero’s rest.
He needs
them not, his name untarnished stands,
Remindful of
the mighty deeds he worked,
Footprints
of one, upon time’s changeful sands,
Who ne’er
his duty shirked.
Who follows
in his steps no danger shuns,
Nor stoops
to conquer by a shameful deed,
An honest
and unselfish race he runs,
From fear
and malice freed.
By Eric Arthur Blair (who became the writer George Orwell)
Copyright © the estate of the late Sonia Brownell Orwell, by kind permission of
A M Heath & Co Ltd. First published
in a local newspaper during WW1.
George Orwell was the pen-name of Eric Arthur Blair, who was
born in India on 25th June 1903. His
parents were Richard Walmsley Blair, who worked for the Indian Civil Service,
and Ida Mabel, nee Limouzin, whose father was French. Eric has two sisters –
Marjorie, who was five years his senior, and Avril, who was five years his
junior. Ida returned to live in England
in 1904, where the family lived in Henley-on-Thames. Eric’s father returned to live in England in
1912 and the family moved to Shiplake, just south of Henley.
Eric began writing poetry at a young age. He and Marjorie attended a convent school in
Henley. Eric’s uncle, Charles Limouzin
suggested sending Eric to boarding school and in 1911 he attended St. Cyprian’s
in Eastbourne.
Eric’s school encouraged pupils to write poetry and during
the First World War two of his poems were published in the school's local
newspaper the Henley and South Oxfordshire Standard. He came second in the Harrow History Prize,
a competition held annually for children at primary school. The high standard of Eric’s school work
meant that he was awarded a scholarship to Wellington School and Eton
College. In January 1917 Eric went to
Wellington, transferring to Eton in the autumn of that year. Eric’s French teacher at Eton was Aldous
Huxley. Eric was involved in the writing
and publishing of a school magazine.
When he left Eton, Eric passed the entrance examination and
joined the Imperial Police which became the Indian Policy Service.
After a long and interesting life, Eric died of Tuberculosis
in London on 21st January 1950.
Since I first contacted them, I understand that George
Orwell’s family have published his poems written during the First World War.
