android appBury St Edmunds Lord Kitchener
Bury St Edmunds Lord Kitchener
also traded as King of Prussia
North, 52.24088,0.7201
closed 1919
opened pre-1759
1 Southgate St
grid reference TL 858 637
The pub is shown on this OS town plan from about 1850 (larger map).
The Lord Kitchener was originally called the King of Prussia (before June 1916). The name change ocurred soon after the second Zeplin attack on the town in which this 18th cent beer-house was significantly damaged. According to a report th the Bury & Norwich Post on 7 April 1916 the pub landlord since 1904 was Frank Dutton. He had been watching the attack by a German airship as he was locking up on Friday 31 March and had been standing in the pub garden with his young son. Soon after they went back indoors three bombs were dropped. One subsequently hit the pub and destroyed the roof. Frank and his family survived the attack but nearby two people in Raingate street were killed. The attack created a lot of local anger and the new pub name was selected soon after a public announcement had revealed that Kitchener had been drowned at sea. The pub closed in 1919 and was demolished soon after. Frank Dutton was afterwards at the Three Cranes.
Dog & Partridge 0.15 mile
Queen's Bar & Grill 0.26 mile
Rose & Crown 0.28 mile
Masons' Arms 0.35 mile
Westgate 0.35 mile
One Bull 0.36 mileHistorical interest
The King of Prussia was without tenant, but owned by Mr Moore MacLeroth, when Mary Nunn was covicted of stealing 4 penny pieces from the till and she was sentenced to transportation for 15 years.Bury & Norwich Post, April 1st 1840*
Kemp was accused of stealing malt and barley from George Suttle of the Golden Lion. He was tried and found guilty then sentenced to 12 months hard labour.Bury & Norwich Post, January 13th 1857* (when the King of Prussia was run by James Kemp)
Mary Ann Nunn, was committed to Bury Gaol, charged with stealing marked money from the till, at the King of Prussia, Bury St. Edmunds, the property of M T M McLeroth.Ipswich Journal, March 1840**
To bet let, The King of Prussia, Bury, with possession at Michaelmas…
Landlords
Footnote
Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener KG (24 June 1850 - 5 June 1916) was a British Field Marshal, diplomat and statesman.
Kitchener won national fame on his second tour in the Sudan (1886-1899), being made Aide de Camp to Queen Victoria and appointed a Knight Commander of the Bath (KCB). However, this campaign also made him brutality infamous, an aspect of his tactics that became well known after the Boer War. In 1896 British forces under Horatio Kitchener moved up the Nile, building a railway to supply arms and reinforcements. After victory in the Battle of Omdurman, near Khartoum, Kitchener had the remains of the Mahdi exhumed and scattered, presumably to teach a lesson to his opponents.
During the Second Boer War (1899-1902), Kitchener arrived with Lord Roberts on the RMS Dunottar Castle and the massive British reinforcements of December 1899. Officially holding the title of chief of staff, he was in practice a second-in-command, and commanded a much-criticised frontal assault at the Battle of Paardeberg in February 1900.
Following the defeat of the conventional Boer forces, Kitchener succeeded Roberts as overall commander in November 1900, and after the failure of a reconciliatory peace treaty in February 1901 (due to British cabinet veto) which Kitchener had negotiated with the Boer leaders, Kitchener inherited and expanded the successful strategies devised by Roberts to crush the Boer guerrillas.
Kitchener was made Commander-in-Chief in India (1902-1909) - his term of office was extended by two years - where he reconstructed the greatly disorganised Indian Army. Promoted to Field Marshal in 1910 he returned to Egypt as British Agent and Consul-General in Egypt. At the outset of World War I, the Prime Minister (Asquith) appointed Lord Kitchener as Secretary of State for War. He subsequently organised a massive recruitment campaign. He died aboard HMS Oak on a diplomatic mission to Russia. The ship struck a mine laid by a German U-boat (U-75) during a Force 9 gale and sank to west of the Orkney Islands. Kitchener, his staff, and 643 of the crew of 655 were either drowned or died of exposure. His body was never found.
(Most pub, location & historic details collated by Nigel, Tony or Keith - original sources are credited)
(1861 census information from Malcolm Fairley)
(some old PO directory information courtesy of londonpublichouse.com)
(* historic newspaper information from Stuart Ansell)
(** historic newspaper information from Bob Mitchell)
Old OS map reproduced with the permission of the National Library of Scotland.
