Kitchener Park in Gunnedah should be renamed to reflect local heroes, historian says

Lord Kitchener, for whom Kitchener Park in Gunnedah is named, committed heinous war crimes during his tenure as a commander of the British army, a military historian has told the Leader.

"He ran a savage campaign in Sudan ... the allegations from eminent people like Winston Churchill were that, on the battlefield, he executed wounded combatants, which was a war crime even at the time," military law researcher and historian James Unkles said.

Mr Unkles has made submissions to councils across Australia, most recently petitioning Gunnedah mayor Jamie Chaffey to rename Kitchener Park.

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The Melbournian historian has made similar submissions to places all over the country, from an airstrip on the Nullarbor Plain in Western Australia to a memorial in Bathurst, even a baker of cream-filled 'Kitchener buns' in Adelaide has heard Mr Unkles' request.

Finally, the scholar's gaze has turned to Gunnedah.

"Gunnedah is the last on the list I'm advocating for ... it's one I wasn't aware of until just a few weeks ago," Mr Unkles said.

He said the mayor responded to his request after a week, saying he would "seek advice on the matter."

Cr Chaffey did not respond to the Leader's requests for comment.

But Mr Unkles says he is undeterred, and if his request is rejected he will continue to seek alternatives so that the truth may be known.

"If you don't rename the park, what I am asking for is to educate the public on another side of Kitchener and that is his war crimes,"

"It's not about inventing history, it's about exposing history."

To his critics, the name-changing crusader says the way we view war crimes shouldn't be changed by the passage of time.

"History is not stagnant. History continues to evolve as evidence becomes available, and injustices don't have an end date in terms of review," Mr Unkles said.

"The tyranny of time does not change the fact that horrendous war crimes were committed."

Shortly after Federation, Lord Herbert Horatio Kitchener was invited to Australia to advise on the best means of providing the new nation with a land defence.

On his tour of Australia he reviewed army units in Queensland, NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, and his work led many towns into carrying his namesake.

"He did a good job advising the government, and the places he visited while reviewing the troops named memorials and parks and streets after him," Mr Unkles said.

However, the history buff also says the story told by many of those memorials is "sanitised," concealing a darker side of Kitchener he compares to the likes of Russian president Vladimir Putin.

"When [Kitchener] moved into South Africa to fight the Boers, he instituted draconian measures, similar to what Putin's doing in Ukraine," Mr Unkles said.

"Scorched Earth policies, summary execution of prisoners, the burning and looting of farms, and probably the most heinous crime: putting women, children, and old men into concentration camps."

Mr Unkles' findings on the military figure are detailed in "Lord Kitchener's Lethal Legacy," a research paper published by the Military History Society of New South Wales.

"The charges against him include the murder of wounded combatants, the persecution of non-combatants and the destruction of their homes and property, including livestock and farming produce through the use of a scorched earth policy, and causing their death in concentration camps used to intern civilians. These charges are not speculation, but a matter of historical record," the paper reads.

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