Noble Blood - Lord Kitchener Wants You!

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

The image of Uncle Sam saying "I Want You!" is one of the most famous poster designs in the world... but it was a copycat of a British original. Their version didn't feature a fictional mascot, but a very real, very living man. Support Noble Blood:—ORDER 'THE ARCANE ARTS'— Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive.

Listen to The Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home.

Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island to serve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture. with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. It's a poster that is so iconic, I'm sure you'll be able to imagine it, just from me describing it to you.

It's a recruitment poster from World War I where a stern man with facial hair stares down the viewer, his finger almost pointing out from the paper as if he wants to poke you directly in the chest. He wants you. American listeners, I am not describing Uncle Sam. Instead, today's episode is about the poster from several years before Uncle Sam, the poster that inspired the American advertisement across the pond. The recruitment posters in the UK didn't feature stars and stripes or a man with a long white beard. Instead, they had a strong, masculine-looking man with a thick, bushy mustache, evoking a Victorian-era style that would have come across as nostalgic and empowering to British citizens a few decades later in the

Edwardian era. It's a throwback to the imperial colonial fashion. This man on the poster is Lord Kitchener, and unlike Uncle Sam, he is not a made-up character meant to inspire national pride, but a very real living at the time person. Lord Kitchener was the Secretary of War, and his face on British recruitment posters became one of the most iconic images of the 20th century in the UK, going on to inspire parodies and copycats all over the world. But the thing about making a man two-dimensional is, at a certain point, he stops being a man and starts to become a cartoon. Kitchner became, well, kitschie, a retro emblem of Rha-Rah-Rah Nassie. nationalism on its most simplistic surface level.

So how did a man become a mascot? And what exactly was he representing? I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. Horatio Herbert Kitchener was born in Ireland on June 24, 1850, although his family was English and only Irish property owners. He was from what seemed to be a fairly wealthy and well-connected family, although his father comes across in accounts as pretty unlikable. He was described as, quote,

an unpopular, tenant-evicting eccentric who used newspapers instead of blankets in bed. Kichner went to school in Switzerland, where the family had moved for his mother's tuberculosis, before his education at the Royal Military Academy. From there, Kitchner's military career took him all over the globe. He became a veritable Where's Waldo figure of British imperialism. Kichner spoke Arabic, and he worked on campaigns throughout Egypt, the Middle East, and Africa. I'm not going to get too much into his military career, but there is one important incident I think worth talking about.

In 1884, the British Major General. General Charles Gordon helped to organize a defense of the city of Khartoum in Sudan against a siege led by the Muslim religious leader who proclaimed himself to be Mahdi. The defense lasted for almost a year, and though the British government had resented Gordon for getting involved in the first place, the British public was so behind him that a relief force was eventually sent in to try to rescue him. Kichner was part of that relief force. And though the attempted rescue was ultimately a failure, Kichner came out of it a well-known and popular military figure, which continued as he won a number of important victories in Sudan

through the late 1890s. All victories framed as justice for Gordon. When Kichner finally led the charge to recapture the city of Amdermann and Dism, and defeat the Muslim forces. They were the type of victories that do well in propaganda, their hero avenged. But even at the time, there were plenty of people put off

by Kichner and his forces brutality. In order to prevent the Mahdi's tomb from becoming a place that might symbolically galvanize supporters, Kichner had it blown up, and the body of the Mahdi was desecrated. his corpse beheaded in reference to the way that Gordon, the British General, had been beheaded more than a decade earlier. Churchill wrote that their victory had been, quote, disgraced by the inhuman slaughter of the wounded, and Kitchener is responsible for this.

From Sudan, Kitchener would go on to become commander-in-chief of India, and then he served as pro-consul of Egypt until war. World War I broke out in 1914, and Kitchener agreed to become Secretary of State for war. There was a reason Kichner was appointed and why he would later become a literal poster boy. For one, he was an actual soldier who had won dramatic victories within living memory. At 6'2, above average height, he was handsome and well-built and had an imposing presence. I saw him described as a, quote, figure of absolute will and power, an emblem of British masculinity. Really, he became a figure almost synonymous with British imperialism.

There is one aspect of Kitchener's personality that almost seems to be a parody of 19th century colonial behavior. Apparently, Kitchener was so cheap that he made a habit of, quote, asking for objects, that he admired. I quote, he sometimes stole attractive objects from his hosts, and at Simla, he took plants from his neighbor's garden, end quote, taking whatever he wants, a perfect, almost comedic embodiment of the British attitude at the time. Unlike so many people in England at the time the First World War broke out, who imagined they would be gloriously fighting the German and then happily home by Christmas, Kitchner understood that the conflict was going to last longer than anyone wanted to believe. He knew that they would need real manpower and hundreds of thousands of men to enlist

if they were going to put up a fight. And so, with the power of his new post, Kichner began recruiting. The new army was a volunteer portion of the army founded in 1914 at Kichner's recommendation for 500,000 new volunteers. The group is also sometimes referred to as Kitchner's Army. But how would you get so many young men to sign up? Kichner's name and his reputation were certainly powerful, but as it turns out, what was even more powerful was his face. Though it quickly became obvious that more men would be needed to fight in the war, conscription was back in 1914, a controversial and politically risky proposition. And so for the time being, recruitment was their best avenue for more men. And for that, the British government would need

to advertise. The first recruitment advertisement ran in newspapers on a full page on August 4th, the day England declared war against the German Empire. The ad had no faces, just the Union Jack and the coat of arms of King George V in the words, your king and country need you. But soon, it wouldn't just be the king who needed you. It would be Kitchener, too. In September of 1914, a designer and illustrator named Alfred Leet, working for the Khexton Advertising Agency,

created the first version of the now iconic image of Lord Kichner pointing at the viewer. It was originally designed for the cover of the London Opinion magazine, with the headline, Your Country Needs You. As I mentioned before, Kichner is a striking-looking man. He has an aspect that sort of evokes a vague, platonically manly ideal of a different era of manliness, with his strong mustache and smart narrowed eyes. But Liet also enhanced the effect. By this point, the real Kitchener was 64 years old.

The photo that Leet used as a reference for Kitchener in his illustration was taken sometime in Kitchener's 30s. It reminds me almost of the way that Queen Elizabeth I didn't circulate portraits that showed her aging and took care to appear forever young in the minds of her citizens. Youth and vitality were then as, now, synonymous in people's minds with symbolic power. Leet also made Kichner's mustache darker and bigger. Kichner, as a war hero and the name associated with army recruitment, was already considered a symbol of national identity. The poster with his face just made it manifest.

The London opinion had a weekly circulation of around 300,000, but the Kitchener image would be reused as part of a recruitment campaign on posters and in newspaper advertisements with text reading Lord Kitchener wants you. Apparently, Kitchener felt a little uneasy about how popular his name and image were becoming, and he had encouraged the advertisers to always. used the words, God save the king at the bottom of the posters. After all, soldiers would be fighting for their king, and not for Kitchener. Within six months, Kitchener's image was ubiquitous. According to the Times on January 3rd, 1915, quote, posters appealing to recruits are to be seen on every hoarding in most windows, in omnibuses, tram cars, and commercial vans. The Great Big, face of Nelson's column is covered with them. Their number and variety are remarkable. Everywhere, Lord Kitchener sternly points a monstrously big finger, exclaiming, I want you.

It's hard to tease out exactly how much power we should describe to an advertising campaign, but by the end of 1914, recruitment into the army had massively increased. At the beginning of 1914, the British Army consisted of about 700,000 men, including reserves, with fewer than 100,000 professional soldiers. But according to one estimate, the advertising campaign featuring Lord Kitchener helped in part to recruit more than a million figures, with the publication of Leet's first image of the secretary coinciding with the highest number of enlisting volunteers. The campaign was so powerful and popular that it led to ire among enemies. There was a pamphlet being published in New York at the time called The Vital Issue that was virulently pro-Germany.

It was aggressively trying to promote America's neutrality in the war, and in their January 15th issue, an op-ed was written complaining about the Kitchener posters, in a way that I find actually quite funny in retrospect. I quote, as one proof of the essential commerciality of the British soul, the same cheap methods for capturing a recruit are called into play as those used for capturing a customer. From the shop windows of cheesemongers and pork butchers,

the cold basilisk eye of a godly lithographed Kitchener rivets itself up on the possible recruit, and the outstretched finger of the British Minister of War is leveled at him like some revolver. The op-ed continues, quote, the entire business of recruiting is saturated with sordidness and vulgarity. The pamphlet claims the idea of the finger-pointing was stolen from an American cigar ad, although I could not find any advertisement featuring the motif, except for the ones that came after Kitchener in homage or parody. Despite the pearl clutching of pro-German propagandists and how omnipresent the image of pointing Lord Kitchener has become

in the century since its debut, a few modern researchers have challenged the notion that the poster itself was originally as ubiquitous as people have assumed. One researcher, James Taylor, argued that after the war was over, the pointing Kitchener design was acquired by the Imperial War Museum, who helped popularize it after the fact. And the far more printed recruitment poster at the time was what was known as the 30-word poster. In that poster, there is simply a boring, non-pointing image of Kitchener.

That looks like a proper portrait or a school picture, printed next to an excerpt from one of his speeches. Quote, men, material, and money are the immediate necessities. Does the call of duty find no response in you until reinforced? Let us rather say superseded by the call of compulsion? Enlist today. Not quite as catchy as Lord Kittner wants you. And to be frank, the poster does not have the same immediacy without the finger-pointing. Whether or not the finger-pointing poster was everywhere,

there are plenty of contemporary sources referencing that leit-pointing illustration and a number of contemporary photographs that make it clear the poster was in fact in circulation. and even if the very boring 30-word poster did have a much larger print run, personally I think it's no wonder why the pointing poster stuck in our collective imagination through the decades. But even an incredibly memorable poster couldn't create an endless supply of young men willing to throw themselves into the human meat grinder of trench warfare as the First World War continued to rage on. Despite their initial reticence, in 1916, Parliament introduced the Military Service Act,

conscripting men into the armed forces for the first time in British history. Every man between 18 and 41 was required to enlist by choice or wait, to be automatically enlisted, with exceptions for married men, childless widows, men in the church, those in protected industries, and the like. Sometimes the law is a stronger incentive than a finger pointed in your face, regardless of what a manly face that finger is attached to. So why did the Kitchener picture become so iconic? One factor probably has to do with what E.B.

Goldstein called the differential rotation effect. In other words, no matter where you're standing, Kitchener's eyes and finger seem to follow you. It's the same effect that the Mona Lisa utilizes that makes it seem like she's always watching. It's also a simple and memorable pose, which makes it easy to parody and duplicate. The same style was used all over the world, in India, Canada, Germany, and of course, with James Montgomery Flagg's Uncle Sam poster in the United States. An 11-year-old boy who would grow into the writer George Orwell certainly would have seen Lord Kitchener's face staring down at him from all over the United Kingdom. It might have gone on to inspire the iconography of Big Brother in Orwell's book 1984,

who stares down from posters from across Orwell's dystopian country. Big Brother is watching you. But even though Kichner's poster would endure, Lord Kichner himself did not. Kichner did not survive the war. He was on board the cruiser HMS Hampshire in 1916 on the way to Russia with a delegation when they hit a German mine and the ship sank.

There were 737 deaths off the coast of Orkney in Scotland and only a handful of survivors. Perhaps ironic for someone whose face you could see on every train stop in the country, Kichner's body was never found. The nation was heartbroken at reports of Kichner's death. It seemed like a uniquely devastating, almost psychological attack on morale to kill such a belief. beloved figure who seemed more powerful than death itself. You can't kill Uncle Sam, but the Germans could kill the very mortal Lord Kichner. But even after his death, Kichner would be a symbol to unite and rally others to continue the fight.

Yet another poster featuring Kichner's face debuted in 1916. This time, Kichner does look older. His mustache is white and drooping. His eyes are tired. His portrait has a flag gathered around it, and Kitchner's sword and hat lie in respectful stillness at the portrait's base. The text on the poster reads, He did his duty.

Will you do yours? Even in death, Kichner could not escape his fate as a recruitment poster, meant to inspire guilt and duty in those who might be willing to lay down their lives the way that he had. That's the story of Lord Kitchener's World War I posters, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear the very strange saga of the conspiracy theories around Kitchener's death. When I was 14 years old, I was kidnapped and held captive for nine months. I survived, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them. I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files.

I just remember this low, taunting voice next to my ear saying, shut up, don't say anything. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable. I knew if he woke up, without a doubt, he was going to hurt me. I started feeling that there was someone at the end. end of my bed and I just started screaming. They are abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. But these aren't stories about what's taken from them. There's stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your For You page are

equally important to your personality, welcome home. This is a lot of your personal. This is a is prose society. The weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for thought daughters, pop culture obsessives, and anyone who thinks Pride and Prejudice and Love Island deserve the same level of discourse. I'm Eli Rallo and every week we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and the conversations everyone can't stop having. I'm going to have to look up this story. I'm obsessed. So I'm obsessed. From bestselling authors and your favorite book talk creators to the latest pop culture moments, nothing is off the table. It's like if you can hide some real messages inside compelling characters, then that is a Trojan

horse. Whether you're looking for literary deep dives, smart pop culture conversations, or a community of readers who love to think a little too much, you're in the right place. Listen to pro society on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you between the pages. On the new podcast, Solita, we should. They're the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B.

I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word solita, trading the pity for possibility. Every time I tried to be alone, I kept meeting people, and they were like, you smiled at us, not a lot of people smile around here. It's when you're alone that you're most receptive to the world as it is and not the lies you're sold about it. It can be a time where you push your limits, change your mind, or wake up to a new version of yourself.

So whether you're a solo travel veteran or you're too nervous to book your first trip, I hope you listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. As is the case with most sudden unexpected deaths of very famous people, there were a number of conspiracy theories that sprang up in the aftermath of Kitchener's death. Lord Alfred Douglas is probably most famous as Oscar Wilde's lover, the man whose father eventually challenged Wilde, leading to Oscar Wilde's charges of criminal gross indecency and his imprisonment.

But after Lord Alfred Douglas' relationship with Wilde, Douglas had a, let's say, Wild second act. He renounced homosexuality and became an incredibly devout Catholic. Plenty of his later life would be tragic, but personally I find it difficult to have too much pity because he also was an extremist right-winger and raging anti-Semite. In 1923, he published an account in his extreme anti-Semitic weekly magazine, claiming that Winston Churchill had falsified reports and helped to kill Lord Kitchner on behalf of his Jewish friends for nefarious reasons. Douglas taunted Churchill into bringing legal action,

and Lord Alfred Douglas was eventually found guilty of criminal libel and forced to go to prison for six months. Noble Blood is a production of I-Heart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz. Writers for Noble Blood are Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Paul Jaffe, Natasha Lasky, and me, Dana Schwartz. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk and Nome's Gripen with supervising producer Rima Il Kali, and executive producers Aaron Manky, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. I survived nine months in captivity, and I've spent my life exploring how other people survive what should have destroyed them.

I'm Elizabeth Smart, and these are the Survivor Files. Every week, I'm with survivors who live through the unthinkable, abducted, stalked, controlled, and nearly silenced. These are stories about what it takes to make it out alive. Listen to the Survivor Files with Elizabeth Smart on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the new podcast, Solita, we share the messy reality of traveling alone as a woman. I can wait four hours for the next bus or this random dude is offering me a ride on his motorcycle. I chose option B. I'm Julie Pinero, and I travel by myself because it's a rare space where I'm a rare space where I'm

I can say yes without asking anyone else first. I'm on a mission to reclaim the word Solita, trading the pity for possibility. Listen to Solita on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If your bookshelf and your for-you page are equally important to your personality, welcome home. Pro Society is a weekly podcast that's part book club, part group chat for anyone who thinks pride and prejudice and love island to serve the same level of discourse. Each week, we're connecting the dots between books, the internet, and pop culture with your favorite writers, book talk creators, and plenty of overthought opinions. Yeah, I'm obsessed. I'm obsessed. Listen to Pro Society on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.