LORD KITCHENER

Hokitika Guardian, 9 August 1926, Page 2

LORD KITCHENER

MYSTERY OF HIS DEATH. HIS BODY REPORTED FOUND. [“Sydney Sun” Cables.] , (Received this day at 8 a.m.) \ LONDON, August 8. The Kitchener mystery has developed a new phase, a lawyer having investigated the claims of Frank Power, a free lance jorimalist, that he has discovered and brought to England, Kitchener’s body. He announces it is liis opinion that the evidence is sufficient to justify a Judge in making a declaration that the body is Lord Kitchener's. , ’ Power states lie always believed that A 1 the winds and currents would have® carried Kitchener’s body to where many victims were washed A systematic search of the coast was* » conducted to learn whether any un- v/ identfied body resembling Kitchener s had been found. A fisherman reported in the summer of 191 G, a tall well-built officer wearing an unusual greenish khaki uniform much ribboned, and corresponding to Lord Kitchener’s, was washed up on the coast. Power thereupon visited Norway and found the grave which local tradition indicated was Kitchener’s. A wooden coffin covered the remains of a wellmade tall man bearing a mark on the skull, peculiarity of the teeth, and uniform, all .similar to that of Lord Kitchener’s. Power states the characteristics preclude a possibility of it being anyone else. The remains were transferred to a coffin, which Power says was made by the Government for Lord Kitchener in 1916 and brought direct to England. Power’s search for the body extended over three years, and was carried out under circumstances of great difficulty, hut with encouragement by the late Earl’s relatives and friends. 1 Sufficient evidence is forthcoming to show that such a body had been discovered by the fisherman who had taken part of the clothing and hung it in his hut. With these things in mind, I started for Norway, taking with me a coffin made by the Government for Kitchener before the first search for his body, immediately after the accident. Upon my arrival, 1 began making a prolonged investigation at all the cemeteries where bodies were buried which had been recovered from the sea at Farsund, Crnkero, Fedje, and elsewhere. After careful search -' T discovered a grave to which local statements and other evidence pointed as that of Kitchener. I received v. valuable assistance from two men who found the body, and gave it a temporary burial beneath the stones ashore, from where it was afterwaids transferred in a wooden casket to the cemetery. These men have signed thair names to statements for mo. The grave had neither cross nor stono to- mark it.

The substance of the conversation with me by L. Johanson and H. Iveisen was that during the war they occasionally found bodies on the shore of South Western Norway, Egersund and Hidra. South of Egersund they found the body of a tall man, terribly bruised about the head, his uniform being much', torn. Johanson who saved a piece’of it said it was that of a very high officer. Johanson also saved ribbons, but had thrown them away within a. few yards of the spot the body was found. The remains of a British sailor from the Hampshire was officially acknowledged on the sailor’s tombstone. At other points on the coast other bodies of sailors fiom the Hampshire, were found. Power stated he was depending on very eleai marks of identification discovered when he examined the body as foil 1!

lows:—- Vjjj. Fine stature, mark of a mold wound " on the skull, which corresponded with ( ; one Lord Jv'Thoiier was known to have received. His dental work, which corresponds with a description from Lord Kitchener’s dentist. In certain places there were scraps of fabric still clinging to the body with scraps of braid and ribbon which checked with the description of Lord Kitchener s tailor.

My final plans are naturally incomplete. On arrival to-day of. the body in London it will he met with all due respect and reverence, and conveyed to a suitable mortuary. The coffin will be covered with a large Union Jack sent to me for the purpose by a titled lady. I shall immediately notify the accredited representatives of the British Gov.ernment that the remains of Lord Kitchener are in my possession, and are at the disposal of the nation. The remains can he those of no other high officer on the Hampshire. I have determined that by elimination of the only member of the Kitchener staff who was not .found and buried. He was Leslie Robertson, a much shorter and 1 smaller man than the Field Marshal. Kitchener’s tailor is prepared to vouch for the clothes on the body as being absolute proofe of identity, apart from other incontestable evidence. 1