Earl Kitchener was born in 1850 near Listowel. His first posting to Egypt came in 1883, and in 1885 he accompanied General Wolseley on the abortive expedition to relieve General Gordon in Khartoum. In two campaigns in the 1890s he achieved to reclaim Sudan from the fundamentalist followers of the Mahdi. In the Second South African War he was chief to staff to General Roberts, insisting on moderate terms in the final peace settlement. He was later Commander in Chief of the Indian Army and British Consul General in Egypt. He was drowned on the way to Russia, when HMS Hampshire in which he was travelling hit a German mine off Scapa Flow. The sculpture shows Kitchener in field uniform, high booted and spurred, standing at ease with the weight resting on the right foot, and folded hands.