Created field marshal.
1900. South African campaign.
1901. Commander-in-chief of British army.
1914. November 14. Died in France.
KITCHENER
THE SOLDIER OF DEEDS--NOT WORDS
When Chinese Gordon lost his life in Khartoum, Egypt, in 1884, because
the British relief force reached him two days too late, a young officer
accompanying the expedition was getting his first glimpse of a land
that was destined to make him famous. "Kitchener of Khartoum" was to
become as widely known in a later generation as Chinese Gordon was in
his own. Each won his spurs in a foreign land.
Kitchener was then a cavalry officer of thirty-five, and did not seem
destined to get much higher in army circles. Yet he had never lost
faith in himself. After this first expedition to Egypt, when he was
still only a major, he remarked drolly to a fellow officer:
"Never mind, my dear fellow, a few years hence you and I will be
generals, and these people who annoy us now (meaning the red-tape
departmental clerks) will be looking out of their club windows, with
all their teeth falling out of their heads!"
During this same expedition, he spoke of the fact that their commanding
officer had missed the key-point, by saying:
"It's the same with everybody. We must stop floundering, or people
will forget that Khartoum is our objective and always will be.
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