The Henson Journals

[582]

Tuesday, June 6th, 1916.

673rd day

Death of Kitchener

The weather is still very uncertain, and generally unpleasant. I attended Mattins in the Cathedral, and then spent the morning in going through Cranmer's Answer to Gardiner. A.D.1550, which is very germane to any discussion of the First Prayer–Book of Edward VI. After lunch Ernest and I drove to Sherburn Hospital and then went on to Pittington, which, however, we failed to see, as the vicar was absent, & the servants at the Vicarage could not find the Church keys. When we returned to the Deanery about 5 p.m. we were met with the shocking intelligence that Lord Kitchener had been drowned. He was proceeding to Russia in a cruizer, the 'Hampshire', and had got but a little way from the Orkneys, when his ship was torpedoed, or struck a mine. Ernest & I at once hurried into the town, and read the dismaying telegram in the "Advertizer" office. Later we found the announcement from the Admiralty in the Evening paper. It is a tragic conclusion to a greatly serviceable life. I do not envy the thought of those (e.g. Sir Arthur Markham & Lord Northcliffe) who had worked themselves into public notice by attacks on Lord Kitchener. The nation will be deeply moved. If this disaster had befallen us earlier in the War, it would have been irreparable and perhaps fatal. As it is, Lord Kitchener's work had been completed: he had brought the country to realize the magnitude of its task. He had raised the vast armies which are in France, Egypt, and Salonika. He had lent the prestige of his great name to cement the alliance of the Armies of France, Russia, Italy, & England. It was possible, perhaps it was desirable, that he should resign his power into the hands of younger men. But it is as true in his case as it could be in any man's case to say of him that he was the Saviour of his Country.

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