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More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
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Lord Kitchener
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(Herbert Kitchener, 1850–1916, KCMG 1894, earl 1914) Soldier who was secretary of state for war at the start of World War I. He had first become well known from events in the *Sudan. He was a member of the 1885 expedition which failed to relieve *Gordon at Khartoum, and he became determined to avenge Gordon's death – an ambition achieved in 1898 when he defeated the *Mahdi's followers at the Battle of Omdurman (Sept. 2) and established British-Egyptian rule over the Sudan.
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From November 1900 he was the British commander-in-chief in the *Boer War, conducting the campaign with a ruthlessness which included the introduction of *concentration camps. He commanded the British army in *India (1902–9) and administered British *Egypt (1911–14) before being appointed to the cabinet as secretary for war; his is the face on the best known of all recruiting posters, pointing imperiously at the viewer with the statement 'Your country needs you'. He died when the cruiser HMS Hampshire, taking him on a mission to Russia, struck a mine near the Orkneys.
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