Who Killed Kitchener?
Who Killed Kitchener?

Author: David Laws

Publisher: Biteback Publishing

Published: 2019-03-20

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1785904922

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In June 1916, Field Marshal Lord Kitchener set sail from Orkney on a secret mission to bolster the Russian war effort. Just a mile off land and in the teeth of a force 9 gale, HMS Hampshire suffered a huge explosion, sinking in little more than fifteen minutes. Crew and passengers numbered 749; only twelve survived. Kitchener's body was never found. Remembered today as the face of the famous First World War recruitment drive, at the height of his career Kitchener was fêted as Britain's greatest military hero since Wellington. By 1916, however, his star was in its descent. A controversial figure who did not make friends easily in Cabinet, he was considered by many to be arrogant, secretive and high-handed. From the moment his death was announced, rumours of a conspiracy began to flourish, with the finger pointed variously at the Bolsheviks, Irish nationalist saboteurs and even the British government. Using newly released files kept secret for almost 100 years, former Cabinet minister David Laws unravels the true story behind the demise of this complex figure, debunking the conspiracy theories and revealing the crucial blunders that the government and military sought to cover up. The result is the definitive account of an event that shook the country and which has been shrouded in mystery ever since.

Haig and Kitchener in Twentieth-Century Britain
Haig and Kitchener in Twentieth-Century Britain

Author: Stephen Heathorn

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-22

Total Pages: 279

ISBN-13: 131712412X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Lord Kitchener and Lord Haig are two monumental figures of the First World War. Their reputations, both in their lifetimes and after their deaths, have been attacked and defended, scrutinized and contested. They have been depicted in film, print and public memorials in Britain and the wider world, and new biographies of both men appear to this day. The material representations of Haig and Kitchener were shaped, used and manipulated for official and popular ends by a variety of groups at different times during the twentieth century. The purpose of this study is not to discover the real individual, nor to attack or defend their reputations, rather it is an exploration of how both men have been depicted since their deaths and to consider what this tells us about the nature and meaning of First World War commemoration. While Haig's representation was more contested before the Second World War than was Kitchener's, with several constituencies trying to fashion and use Haig's memory - the Government, the British Legion, ex-servicemen themselves, and bereaved families - it was probably less contested, but overwhelmingly more negative, than Kitchener's after the Second World War. The book sheds light on the notion of 'heroic' masculinity - questioning, in particular, the degree to which the image of the common soldier replaced that of the high commander in the popular imagination - and explores how the military heritage in the twentieth century came into collision with the culture of modernity. It also contributes to ongoing debates in British historiography and to the larger debates over the social construction of memory, the problematic relation between what is considered 'heritage' and 'history', and the need for historians to be sensitive and attentive to the interconnections between heritage and history and their contexts.

The Kitchener Enigma
The Kitchener Enigma

Author: Trevor Royle

Publisher: The History Press

Published: 2016-05-02

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 0750968877

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In this critically acclaimed biography, now fully updated, Royle revises Kitchener's latter-day image as a stern taskmaster, the ultimate war lord, to reveal a caring man capable of displaying great loyalty and love to those close to him. New light is thrown on his Irish childhood, his years in the Middle East as a biblical archaeologist, his attachment to the Arab cause and on the infamous struggle with Lord Curzon over control of the army in India. In particular, Royle reassesses Kitchener's role in the Great War, presenting his phenomenally successful recruitment campaign – 'Your Country Needs You' – as a major contribution to the Allied victory and rehabilitating him as a brilliant strategist who understood the importance of fighting the war on multiple fronts.

Jutland, 1916
Jutland, 1916

Author: Nigel Steel

Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson

Published: 2012-12-20

Total Pages: 597

ISBN-13: 1780225733

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Dramatic, illustrated account of the biggest naval battle of the First World War. On 31 May, 1916, the great battle fleets of Britain and Germany met off Jutland in the North Sea. It was a climactic encounter, the culmination of a fantastically expensive naval race between the two countries, and expectations on both sides were high. For the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet, there was the chance to win another Trafalgar. For the German High Seas Fleet, there was the opportunity to break the British blockade and so change the course of the war. But Jutland was a confused and controversial encounter. Tactically, it was a draw; strategically, it was a British victory. Naval historians have pored over the minutiae of Jutland ever since. Yet they have largely ignored what the battle was actually like for its thousands of participants. Full of drama and pathos, of chaos and courage, JUTLAND, 1916 describes the sea battle in the dreadnought era from the point of view of those who were there.

Great Britain's Great War
Great Britain's Great War

Author: Jeremy Paxman

Publisher: Penguin UK

Published: 2013-10-03

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 0670919640

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Jeremy Paxman's magnificent history of the First World War tells the entire story of the war in one gripping narrative from the point of view of the British people. *** We may think we know about it, but what was life really like for the British people during the First World War? The well-known images - the pointing finger of Lord Kitchener; a Tommy buried in the mud of the Western Front; the memorial poppies of Remembrance Day - all reinforce the idea that it was a pointless waste of life. So why did the British fight it so willingly and how did the country endure it for so long? Using a wealth of first-hand source material, Jeremy Paxman brings vividly to life the day-to-day experience of the British over the entire course of the war, from politicians, newspapermen, campaigners and Generals, to Tommies, factory workers, nurses, wives and children. It shows how both British life and identity were utterly transformed - not always for the worst - by the enormous upheaval of the war. Rich with personalities, surprises and ironies, this lively narrative history paints a picture of courage and confusion, doubts and dilemmas, and is written with Jeremy Paxman's characteristic flair for storytelling, wry humour and pithy observation. *** "A fine introduction to the part Britain played in the first of the worst two wars in history. The writing is lively and the detail often surprising and memorable" Guardian "He writes so well and sympathetically, and chooses his detail so deftly, that if there is one new history of the war that you might actually enjoy from the very large centennial selection this is very likely it" The Times

Portsmouth in the Great War
Portsmouth in the Great War

Author: Sarah Quail

Publisher: Pen and Sword

Published: 2014-11-30

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 147384780X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Portsmouth in the Great War is a story with a cast of thousands. They included a future archbishop and at least six brave and determined young clergymen with a talent for writing letters who volunteered as Army chaplains. There was the first naval VC of the war who was also the first submariner VC ever; a glamorous commander-in-chief, a number of dashing naval and marine officers and men - and a host of unofficial diarists and letter-writers. The wife of a Royal Academician also featured who went backwards and forwards across the Channel with hospital supplies on the Red Cross yacht Medusa until German U-boats put paid to her plans. Also in the story was the Portsmouth school girl, daughter of a local GP and Territorial Army officer, who was in Germany when war broke out and made her own, perilous way home. There were dockyard workers, and women who took their places when they went away to fight, and women who replaced men on the trams, in banks and post offices, and of course there were the men who joined the three local battalions of the Hampshire Regiment, and the ships which belonged to the Port of Portsmouth. They all took part in the greatest war the world had ever seen, and thousands of them laid down their lives in defence of this country and it's Empire - in Flanders, at Coronel, at Gallipoli and at Jutland, and in the many other theatres of war. The book is fully illustrated and many of the images have not been published before.

Reader's Guide to British History
Reader's Guide to British History

Author: David Loades

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-12-17

Total Pages: 4319

ISBN-13: 1000144364

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Reader's Guide to British History is the essential source to secondary material on British history. This resource contains over 1,000 A-Z entries on the history of Britain, from ancient and Roman Britain to the present day. Each entry lists 6-12 of the best-known books on the subject, then discusses those works in an essay of 800 to 1,000 words prepared by an expert in the field. The essays provide advice on the range and depth of coverage as well as the emphasis and point of view espoused in each publication.