It was on July 21, 1894, that I had the honour of meeting Lord Kitchener and getting the autographed impression of his right hand, which I now publish for the first time as frontispiece to this volume.

The day I had this interview, Lord Kitchener, or, as he was then, Major-General Kitchener, was at the War Office, and to take this impression had to use the paper on his table, and, strangely enough, the imprint of the War Office may be seen at the top of the second finger--in itself perhaps a premonition that he would one day be the controlling force of that great department.
Lord Kitchener was at that moment Sirdar of the Egyptian Army.

He had returned to England to tender his resignation on account of some hostile criticism about "the Abbas affair," and so I took the opportunity of his being in England to ask him to allow me to add his hand to my collection, which even then included some of the most famous men and women of the day.
As Mr.T.P.

O'Connor, in writing recently of Lord Kitchener, said: "One of his greatest qualities, at once useful and charming, is his accessibility.

Anybody who has anything to say to him can approach him; anybody who has anything to teach him will find a ready and grateful learner." My experience can indeed bear out the truth of this clear judgment of one of the leading traits in Lord Kitchener's character.