Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener

An inscription on the side of the black marble altar table in the south aisle of Henry VII's chapel at Westminster Abbey reads (translated from the Latin):

This chapel where rests the Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry the Seventh, has been restored by Sibell Countess Grosvenor for the worship of God and in pious memory of her most beloved son Percy Wyndham who died for King and country and also of the most distinguished soldier Herbert, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, in the year of our salvation 1924 by her friend the architect Detmar Blow.

Percy was a son of George Wyndham, Member of Parliament, whom Sibell married after the death of her husband Earl Grosvenor. Percy was killed in action on 15th September 1914.

Horatio Herbert, 1st Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, O.M. [Order of Merit], K.P [Knight of St Patrick], G.C.B. [Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath] was born in 1850 and served in the army in Egypt and the Sudan 1882-99 and was Sirdar of the Egyptian army (Commander in Chief). Later he served in the second South African war and in India. In 1914 he was appointed Secretary of State for War but was drowned in 1916 when the ship he was travelling on hit a German mine. A memorial service was held in the Abbey on 13th June 1916. His tomb with effigy is in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral. He is recognised as a great Victorian soldier and architect of the allied victory in the First World War.

His Bath stall plate can be seen on the stalls in the main aisle of Henry VII's chapel, the chapel of this Order of knighthood.

Further Reading

"Kitchener: architect of victory" by G.H. Cassar, 1977