Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl of Khartoum and Broome (18501916), going to face his critics as war minister: leaving the war office on 2nd June 1916, for his meeting with (about two hundred) Menbers of Parliament desirous of information it was not in the public interest to discuss publicly in the House of Commons. Within a few hours of the unprecedented gathering, he had left London, with his personal staff, and was on his way to take ship for Russia on board the cruiser Hampshire. General Sir William Robertson (18601933) walking behind.