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HORATIO HERBERT KITCHENER
(1850 - 1916)
GENERAL - STATESMAN
World War I
Recruiting Poster
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Signing the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging, May 31, 1902,
at the close of the Anglo-Boer/South African War:
Lord Horatio Kitchener for Great Britain
Hein Botha for Transvaal
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The men that Lord Kitchener chose for his staff were all handsome, young, unmarried
officers. They were known throughout the Crimea as 'Kitchener's Band of Boys.'
Kitchener referred to them as his 'Happy Family'. Within Kitchener's 'Family', his
favorites were a French-Canadian, Percy Girouand and 'The Brat', Frank Maxwell,
who was spoiled and was with Kitchener six years.
Rumors of Kitchener's peculiar behavior reached all the way to Buckingham Palace.
Queen Victoria's remarks on Kitchener were:
They say he dislikes women, but I can only say that he was very nice to me.
Kitchener and his military secretary, Oswald Fitzgerald, shared living quarters together
the last nine years of their lives. While on a mission to Russia, on June 5, 1916, their
ship, HMS Hampshire, struck a mine. Kitchener and Fitzgerald did not survive.
Lord Kitchener was never caught in an uncompromising position. Due to the danger of
discovery, it is possible that he and his 'Happy Family' were latent homosexuals living a
celibate life.
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Queen Victoria
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Copyright Louis Paul Hennefeld 1983
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