Arthur Bernard Kitchener was born out of wedlock on 1 June 1887 at Queen Charlotte's Maternity Hospital, 189-191, Marylebone Road, NW1. This was a 'Lying-in Hospital' and catered for unmarried mothers of previously good character who were expecting their first child. His mother was Lilla Hannah Kitchener (1862-1954). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1887 in the Marylebone registration district and he was baptised on 2 June 1887 in St Mark's Church, St John's Wood, Westminster.
In 1889 his mother emigrated to Canada where in 1890 she married Amable Brisebois (b.1869) in Montréal, Québec, Canada and they went on to have eight children.
In the 1901 census he is shown as living in two rooms at 21 New Quebec Street, Marylebone with his widowed maternal grandmother Elizabeth Kitchener (b. circa 1833) who was described as a dressmaker and in the 1911 census he was shown as an assistant at a florist, still residing in two rooms at 21 New Quebec Street with his grandmother.
On 31 December 1914 he married Fanny Ponting (1881-1931) in the Church of The Annunciation, Bryanston Street, Marylebone, where the marriage register describes him as a bachelor and a footman living at 21 New Quebec Street and claiming that his father was a Christopher Kitchener, a baker, whilst his wife was shown as a spinster residing at 25 Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, the daughter of William Ponting, a railway servant.
He enlisted as a Private in the Princess Charlotte of Wales's (Royal Berkshire) Regiment, service number 11462 and entered France on 18 March 1915. He was serving as a Lance Corporal in the regiment's 2nd Battalion when he was killed in action, aged 27 years, on 9 May 1915. As he has no known grave he is commemorated on Stone 7.M. on the Ploegsteert Memorial to the Missing, Rue de Messines, Comines-Warneton, Belgium.
By 11 November 1915 his army effects totalling £2-6s-10d had been sent to his widow and on 29 August 1919 she was sent his £3-0s-0d war gratuity. He was posthumously awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the British War Medal 1914-1918 and the Victory Medal.
He is shown as Kitchener.A. Pte. Berks.Reg. on the Quebec Chapel War memorial and he is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website and on the Imperial War Museum's Lives of the First World War website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
