Volume 2 — THE DEATH OF KITCHENER

Field Marshal Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, perished with his staff off the West Orkney Islands on June 5 by the sinking of the British cruiser Hampshire, which struck a mine and went down fifteen minutes later. "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" Formerly they had sounded in our ears as chords of solemn music, breathing consolation; now that we see them clearly to be triumphant verities, living and everlasting truths, they ring out like a trumpet call, summoning and inspiring the living to stronger action. The work continues though the hand that moulded it perishes; the body dies, but the soul lives on. There is no sting in the grave when on either side men press forward to one immortal goal and when living and dead battle together for incorruptible principles. Whether individually we live or die signifies nothing, if that high cause for which we fight wins. Lord Kitchener's death will not interfere with the work he had undertaken, nor shall his passing delay, but rather shall it hasten the victory to which he looked forward.

Land and Water, London, June 8, 1916.