This month's picture takes us to the rugged landscapes, and turbulent icy seas, of the Orkney Islands, to the north of the Scottish mainland. The tower in the distance is the Kitchener Memorial, erected in memory of Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, who died on June 5, 1916, in the sinking of the British Navy ship 'Hampshire' just off Marwick Head, whilst on a secret mission to Russia to discuss the progress of the war. The cause of the sinking is still a mystery, but it was probably a mine, although some believe it was a torpedo hit from a German submarine. There were only twelve survivors.

This squat tower is a singularly ugly monument. Lord Kitchener himself is best remembered today as the moustached face on a British recruiting poster, where he is portrayed pointing rather accusingly at the viewer, with the confronting text below, 'Your Country needs YOU'. This famous image was originally a rushed cover for the paper 'London Opinion'. Today, he still has a kind of Sergeant Pepperish appeal, but otherwise is largely forgotten. 

Horatio Kitchener was born in 1850, and, in the nineteenth century was involved in many British actions in the African colonies, and it was he who won back the Sudan at the Battle of Omdurman - the 'little war' in which General Gordon had perished (see Saffy's Corner, June issue). But most of the soldiers who had had experience in Queen Victoria's 'little wars' had no conception of what modern warfare would be like.

In 1907 military trials had clearly shown that a pair of machine guns could wipe out an entire battalion of men advancing over open ground in less than a minute. Nevertheless, the high command at the beginning of the Great War believed that human values and moral courage could somehow overcome the rain of bullets. The military historian Michael Evans has written:

'...To help maintain an offensive spirit, a theory of...a human-psychological battlefield developed. The theory was based on a belief that human values and moral forces could overcome fire-swept ground in a military attack...Throughout early twentieth century Europe, there was a growing martial belief in the spirit of the offensive based on an idea of 'heroic vitalism'.

In France it was called 'elan', but it still didn't help. Lord Kitchener was an exeption - he realised from the beginning that the war would last for years, and probably cost millions of lives. His thinking that the fighting should be concentrated on the Western Front was probably wise, but he was overruled, and was reluctantly involved in the disastrous Gallipoli campaign, in which so many British troops lost their lives, as well as a proportionally much greater number (given their small populations) of Australian and New Zealand soldiers.

When news of his death reached the trenches, it is doubtful that many tears were shed. The lonely battlement at rain and mist shrouded Marwick Head was erected in 1926, from contributions made by the people of Orkney. It stands as his most lasting memorial.

Update April 2005

I have received a letter which points out that Lord Kitchener has a lasting memorial greater,  and much more worthy, than the tower pictured here. It is the Kitchener  Scholarships.  Jonathan Price writes,