Kitchener Terrace

Field Marshall Herbert Horatio Kitchener, known as Earl Kitchener, was born to an English family in Ireland, 1850. Herbert was educated in Switzerland and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. Before being commissioned into the Royal field Engineers in 1871, he served in the Franco-Prussian War in the field ambulance service. His next deployment was as a surveyor in Palestine, Egypt and Cyprus.

Kitchener then spent time in Khartoum fighting the Sudanese and instituting reforms such as recognising Friday as a holy day, rebuilding mosques and guaranteeing religious freedoms.  After Khartoum, came the second Boer War where Kitchener made a name for himself as a brutal and inhumane military commander.

Kitchener commenced a 'scorched earth' policy of removing civilian support for the Boer settlers. Homes were razed to the ground, stock slaughtered, women and children locked up in disease-ridden concentration camps.  Kitchener also had two Australian soldiers shot in the 'Breaker Morant' case - where the soldiers followed orders that the commander conveniently forgot he had issued.

After the Boer War, Kitchener spent time in India where he wanted to be made Viceroy, but he never got the position. When World War One broke out, Kitchener was appointed Secretary of State for War. Kitchener correctly predicted that the war would be long and hard, unlike his colleagues.

After proposing that the troop contingent be made up of the Australian and New Zealand soldiers (ANZACs) already serving in Egypt, Kitchener supported Churchill's daring plan for the Dardanelles. Of course history shows the great military blunder that ensued, which thoroughly ruined Kitchener's political reputation after 1915.

Then in June 1916, on the HMS Hampstead en route to a diplomatic mission, Kitchener and the crew struck a German mine and perished.

Kitchener had encouraged the home front war effort with his contribution of a knitting pattern for a sock with no toe seams using a special stitch - the Kitchener stitch.  In his spare time he also enjoyed interior decorating and collecting fine bone china. Topographical maps and survey notes of Palestine and the South Levant, made by Kitchener, are still in use by scholars today.

This story was originally published in the Taranaki Daily News.

Related plan:

Moturoa Subdivision DP3481, ICS Pre 300,000 Cadastral Plan Index (Imaged by LINZ)