Herbert Kitchener signed 1885 Letter

Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener signed handwritten letter dated 12^th September 1885 with interesting content relating to the British in Egypt. Addressed to Sir Charles Moore Watson, a British Army officer and engineer who had served as an intelligence officer in the Anglo-Egyptian War of 1882 and remained in Egypt until 1886. Kitchener also references Sir Henry Drummond Charles Wolff, the High Commissioner to Egypt. In part the letter states ‘My Dear Watson, Long live the Pasha. May your Excellency enjoy every bliss and flourish like the palm in which the doves set and sing their love songs'. I have not written before as I had little to tell. Sir D Wolff has all Egypt in hand’.

During WWI as Secretary of State for War, Kitchener organised Britain's largest ever volunteer army and a massive expansion of material production. In 1916 he was killed when HMS Hampshire sunk whilst travelling for negotiations with Tsar Nicholas II.