Portrait of Brigadier General Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Sirdar (Commander-in-Chief) of the ...

Portrait of Brigadier General Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Sirdar (Commander-in-Chief) of the Egyptian Army in 1896. The medal around his neck, as well as the star on his right shoulder and the sash going across his right shoulder, are all part of his Order of Osmanieh First Class, which he received in late 1896. From left to right, his other medals are the Companion to the Order of Bath (which he received in 1889), Companion to the Order of St Michael and St George (which he received in 1886), the Egypt Medal and Khedive’s Star (both given out mid to late 1880s). The breast star below his medals is the Order of the Medjidie First Class. By the time this photo was likely taken, Brigadier General Kitchener was a Knight of both the Order of Bath and the Order of St Michael and St George and would have been entitled to wear the medals around his neck, along with a star on his breast for each. In this photograph he is wearing the two orders at their Companion level, not at the Knighthood level that he is entitled. The most logical explanation for this is that he wished to emphasis his Egyptian (Ottoman) orders for the purposes of this, his formal portrait as Sirdar of Egypt.