Entering the Royal Engineers in 1871, Horatio Herbert Kitchener rose to become one of the Empire's most famous soldiers. He was made Commander-in-Chief of the Army in Egypt from 1892-1898 (defeating the Dervishes in the battle of Omdurman, and also meeting Winston Churchill, who was fighting as a junior officer), and took on this role again in South Africa, 1900-1902 and in India, 1902-1909. He then became Consul-General in Egypt from 1911-1914, returning as Secretary of State for War from the outbreak of the First World War until his death by drowning in June 1916.