Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener (1850 – 1916) played a central role in the early part of the First World War.

Kitchener won fame in 1898 for winning the Battle of Omdurman and gaining control of the Sudan. For this he was given the title "Lord Kitchener of Khartoum". His was also Commander-in-Chief (1902–09) of the Army in India and Consul-General of Egypt.

In 1914, at the start of the First World War, Lord Kitchener became Secretary of State for War. By now he was extremely famous. He could see the war was going to be long, even though most people thought it would be short. For this reason he organised the largest volunteer army the world had seen to fight Germany on the Western Front.

There needed to be massive advertising for this, and because he was famous and trusted, it was his face that appeared on the posters asking for volunteers. "Your country needs you!", is one of the most famous posters ever produced in the world.

Kitchener drowned, alongside 600 other men, on 5 June 1916 when HMS Hampshire sank west of the Orkney Islands, Scotland when the ship struck a German mine.