Major
Major most commonly refers to:
* Major (rank), a military rank
* Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits
* People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames
* Major and minor in musi ...
Henry Herbert Kitchener, 3rd Earl Kitchener
TD DL (24 February 1919 – 16 December 2011), styled Viscount Broome from 1928 to 1937, was a
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies.
* British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...
peer. He was unmarried, and when he died the title
Earl Kitchener
Earl Kitchener, of Khartoum and of Broome in the County of Kent, was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1914 for the famous officer Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener, 1st Viscount Kitchener of Khartoum. He had alread ...
became extinct.
Education and private life
He was educated at
Sandroyd School
Sandroyd School is an independent co-educational preparatory school for day and boarding pupils aged 2 to 13 in the south of Wiltshire, England. The school's main building is Rushmore House, a 19th-century country house which is surrounded by th ...
in Wiltshire,
Winchester
Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...
and
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...
. He succeeded his grandfather in the earldom on 27 March 1937. The following month, he was a
Page of Honour
A Page of Honour is a ceremonial position in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. It requires attendance on state occasions, but does not now involve the daily duties which were once attached to the office of page. The only ...
to King
George VI
George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952 ...
at
his coronation.
Like his great-uncle before him, he was an English
Freemason
Freemasonry (sometimes spelled Free-Masonry) consists of fraternal groups that trace their origins to the medieval guilds of stonemasons. Freemasonry is the oldest secular fraternity in the world and among the oldest still-existing organizati ...
. He was initiated on 24 November 1947 in the Royal Somerset House & Inverness Lodge No 4 (London), and rose to senior rank, serving as Senior Grand Warden of the
United Grand Lodge of England
The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE) is the governing Masonic lodge for the majority of freemasons in England, Wales, and the Commonwealth of Nations. Claiming descent from the Masonic Grand Lodge formed 24 June 1717 at the Goose & Gridiron ...
.
Henry Kitchener was also a committed supporter of the organic movement and took up a role with the charity Garden Organic (formerly the Henry Doubleday Research Association - HDRA). Having joined the charity's founder, Lawrence Hills' band of enthusiasts in July 1958, as member number 171, Henry Kitchener became its president in 1973, a position he was to occupy for the next thirty-five years. In 2008, during Garden Organic's 50th anniversary year, Earl Kitchener left the organisation as president and was replaced by Professor Tim Lang. However Earl Kitchener remained interested in the organic movement and regularly wrote and updated the organisation whenever a subject arose that he felt passionately about.
Military career
Lord Kitchener served in the
Royal Corps of Signals
The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communications an ...
, retiring with the rank of major, and was President of the Lord Kitchener National Memorial Fund from 1950 until his death. In 1972, he served as
Deputy Lieutenant of
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
. He was a Vice President of The Western Front Association.
Political career
Lord Kitchener took his seat in the House of Lords in 1942 and made his maiden speech in 1983.
Lord Kitchener, who had been a member of the Council of the UK's
Electoral Reform Society
The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is an Advocacy group, independent advocacy organisation in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It seeks to replace first-past-the-post voting with proportional representation, advocating the si ...
, was a strong supporter of its advocacy of the electoral system that provided proportional representation using the Single Transferable Vote, known as PR-STV.
As a hereditary peer, who had a right to sit and vote in the House of Lords - until that right was largely removed for such peers in 1999 - he had, with his friend and colleague, the late Earl Russell, spoken persuasively in the House in support of open list PR-STV for UK elections of Members of the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...
, when that House amended, on four separate occasions, a 1998 Lower House Bill that provided for a closed list only.
Within the Electoral Reform Society, the Earl Kitchener had also been a strong advocate for the use of the
Meek system of PR-STV, which had been devised by his colleague, Brian Meek.
Lord Kitchener had, in 1992 visited
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
to assist in a successful campaign for the entrenchment, as the result of a successful 1995 referendum, of a PR-STV electoral system for the legislature of the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...
. He had earlier visited
New Zealand
New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...
, where he studied attitudes to the new MMP electoral system there, and what he regarded as a far superior approach to MMP, which was the Meek system of PR-STV that New Zealand has legislated for use as an option in municipal elections.
Scientific career
Lord Kitchener was a qualified physicist. He spent most of his working life with
ICI at
Winnington
Winnington is a ward and northwestern suburb of the town of Northwich, in the Cheshire West and Chester borough of Cheshire, England.
Industry
Winnington is the home to Brunner Mond UK chemical works, where soda ash is created. Polythene, t ...
,
Cheshire
Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...
.
Lord Kitchener's interest in the application of evidence-based research was demonstrated by his role of President and a Trustee of the
Institute for Food, Brain and Behaviour (formerly Natural Justice) a UK charity conducting scientific research into the effects of nutrition on brain function and behaviour. Kitchener was associated with the charity for over 20 years serving under two chairmen, the late Bishop
Hugh Montefiore and the succeeding chairman, Mrs Frances Jackson. He took a keen, detailed, interest in IFBB's scientific work, interrogating scientists robustly at Board Meetings on the progress of their research and was a keen and perceptive reader of academic journal articles and papers.
Death
His niece Emma Joy Kitchener,
LVO (2000) (born 1963), a
Lady-in-Waiting
A lady-in-waiting (alternatively written lady in waiting) or court lady is a female personal assistant at a Royal court, court, attending on a royal woman or a high-ranking nobility, noblewoman. Historically, in Europe, a lady-in-waiting was o ...
to
Princess Michael of Kent
Princess Michael of Kent (born Baroness Marie-Christine Anna Agnes Hedwig Ida von Reibnitz, 15 January 1945) is a member of the British royal family. She is married to Prince Michael of Kent, who is a grandson of George V, King George V. Prince ...
, married
Julian Fellowes
Julian Alexander Kitchener-Fellowes, Baron Fellowes of West Stafford (born 17 August 1949), known professionally as Julian Fellowes, is an English actor, novelist, writer, producer, film director, and Conservative peer. He has received nume ...
on 28 April 1990. On 15 October 1998 the Fellowes family changed its surname from Fellowes to Kitchener-Fellowes.
She is also a great-great-niece of
Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener.
Lord Fellowes publicly expressed his dissatisfaction that the
proposals to change the rules of royal succession were not extended to
hereditary peerage
The hereditary peers form part of the peerage in the United Kingdom. As of April 2025, there are 800 hereditary peers: 30 dukes (including six royal dukes), 34 marquesses, 189 earls, 108 viscounts, and 439 barons (not counting subsidiary ...
s, which had they been would have allowed his wife to succeed her uncle as
The Countess Kitchener in her own right. Or as he put it "I find it ridiculous that, in 2011, a perfectly sentient adult woman has no rights of inheritance whatsoever when it comes to a hereditary title" Instead, the
title
A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...
became extinct on her uncle's death because there were no male heirs. On 9 May 2012, Queen
Elizabeth II
Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...
issued a
Royal Warrant of Precedence
A royal warrant of precedence is a warrant issued by the monarch of the United Kingdom to determine precedence amongst individuals or organisations.
Most warrants of this type are issued to grant a rank to a member of the nobility or gentry th ...
granting Lady Emma Fellowes the same rank and style as the daughter of an
earl
Earl () is a rank of the nobility in the United Kingdom. In modern Britain, an earl is a member of the Peerages in the United Kingdom, peerage, ranking below a marquess and above a viscount. A feminine form of ''earl'' never developed; instead, ...
, as would have been due to her if her late father had survived his brother and therefore succeeded to the earldom.
Arms
Family
He was the son of Captain Henry Franklin Chevallier Kitchener, Viscount Broome, only son of
Henry Kitchener, 2nd Earl Kitchener. His great-uncle was the renowned military commander
Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener (; 24 June 1850 – 5 June 1916) was a British Army officer and colonial administrator. Kitchener came to prominence for his imperial campaigns, his involvement in the Second Boer War, a ...
.
Notes
References
*Kidd, Charles, Williamson, David (editors). ''Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage'' (1990 edition). New York: St Martin's Press, 1990,
External links
*
Institute for Food, Brain and Behaviour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kitchener, Henry Kitchener, 3rd Earl
Earls Kitchener
1919 births
2011 deaths
Deputy lieutenants of Cheshire
Pages of Honour
Royal Corps of Signals officers
People educated at Sandroyd School
People educated at Winchester College
Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Imperial Chemical Industries people
20th-century British Army personnel
Kitchener