The lord of war visits us
FAMED British army commander Lord Kitchener visited Geelong and the Bellarine in 1910 to inspect the defences of Port Phillip Heads around Queenscliff.
Perhaps he is best remembered as the army officer with the walrus moustache on British World War I recruiting posters pointing an accusing finger and stating, “Your Country Needs You’’.
In Geelong, the name Kitchener became synonymous with the Geelong Hospital after World War I, with the building of the Kitchener Memorial Hospital from 1924.
Later a nursing home built opposite the hospital in Ryrie St was named Kitchener House.
Kitchener had made his name in the British army as the avenger of General Gordon, who had been killed at Khartoum in 1885.
In 1900, Kitchener was made commander-in-chief of the British Empire forces fighting the Boers in South Africa. He went on to command the British Empire forces in India from 1902-09, and the following year visited Australia in his capacity as field marshal to inspect the defences, including those at Queenscliff, which he inspected on January 12, 1910.
Lord Kitchener arrived at Geelong from Melbourne by special train at 6.12pm in the company of then prime minister Alfred Deakin.
But to the disappointment of the large crowd that had gathered at Geelong Railway Station, the field marshal remained on the train for the duration of the stop before continuing by rail to Queenscliff.
Another crowd had gathered at Queenscliff station and it at least got a glimpse of Lord Kitchener as he got into a waiting car and made his way to the fort.
There were planned to be troop manoeuvres that night but a storm caused their postponement.
Lord Kitchener stayed in Queenscliff overnight and left for Swan Island before 7am the next day and from there went on to Fort Nepean.
Lord Kitchener returned to Queenscliff to see some army manoeuvres in The Narrows in which an imaginary enemy had landed near Barwon Heads.
Lord Kitchener met his end in June 1916 when the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hampshire, bearing him on a mission to Russia, was sunk by a German mine off the Orkney Islands. Contact: peterjohnbegg@gmail.com