One hundred years ago this week "Clio" of Melbourne's Punch provided some revealing anecdotes about famous Lord Horatio Kitchener. The steely senior British Army officer had won fame for his imperial campaigns and was the face on the famous 1914 recruiting posters.
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"Lady Dudley has already helped to form an Australian hospital contingent in London but has announced her intention of accompanying it to the front. The only obstacle likely to stop her is Lord Kitchener's deeply-rooted opinions as to the proper place of women during war. He was so bothered by patriotic women who swarmed out to South Africa with every desire to help [at the Boer War] that it gave rise to his caustic saying which has become famous, that 'the worst pests of the campaign were women and flies'.
"The personality of Lord Kitchener has an immense fascination for women because it is widely believed that the great soldier is a woman-hater. An absolute myth! He has his love story, just like any ordinary, everyday man. He met and fell deeply in love with Lord Londonderry's only daughter - but it was not until the appointment to India that he felt his position was good enough to ask her to share it. She liked him, but [hated the idea of] India, and so Kitchener, with whom duty is stronger than every other characteristic, went out to his post alone. When he heard of her marriage [to another] it was as painful a blow to him as such a thing would be for any man."
