Lord Kitchener (or Kitch), was a Trinbagonian Calypsonian. He has been described as The Grand Master of Calypso and The Greatest Calypsonian of the post-war age. He became known as an innovator, introducing musical and lyrical changes, including frequent criticism of the British government's control of the island.
Aldwyn Roberts HBM (1922–2000), better known by his stage name Lord Kitchener (or Kitch), was a Trinbagonian Calypsonian. He has been described as The Grand Master of Calypso and The Greatest Calypsonian of the post-war age. HBM stands for the Hummingbird Medal is a state decoration of Trinidad and Tobago. The medal is awarded for loyal and devoted service beneficial to the state. Roberts was born in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, the son of a blacksmith, Stephen, and housewife, Albertha and was educated at the Arima Boys Government School until he was 14, when his father died, leaving him orphaned. His father had encouraged him to sing and taught him to play the guitar and he became a full-time musician, his first job was playing guitar for the Water Scheme labourers while they laid pipes in the San Fernando Valley. He became locally popular in Arima with songs such as Shops Close Too Early and joined the Sheriff Band as lead singer. He won the Arima borough council's calypso competition five times between 1938 and 1942. He later moved to Port of Spain in 1943 where he met fellow Calypsonian Growling Tiger, who decided Roberts should from that point be known as Lord Kitchener.
A Calypsonian, originally known as a Chantwell, is a musician from the Caribbean who sings songs of the Calypso genre. Calypsos are musical renditions having their origins in the West African griot tradition. Originally called Kaiso, these songs, based on West African Yoruba, Ewe-Fon and Akan musical beats, were sung by slaves and later ex-slaves in Trinidad and Tobago during recreation time and about a host of topics. Kitchener toured Jamaica for six months in 1947–48 with Lord Beginner and Lord Woodbine before taking passage on the Empire Windrush to England in 1948. Upon his arrival at Tilbury Docks, Kitchener performed the specially-written song London Is the Place for Me, which he sang live on a report for Pathé News. Within two years he was a regular performer on BBC radio, and was much in demand for live performances. He found further success in the UK in the 1950s, building a large following in the expatriate communities of the West Indian islands, and having hits with Kitch and Alec Bedser Calypso, while remaining popular in Trinidad and Tobago. His prominence continued throughout the 1950s, when calypso achieved international success. Kitchener became a very important figure to those first 5,000 West Indian migrants to the UK. His music spoke of home and a life that they all longed for but in many cases could not or would not return to. He immortalised the defining moment for many of the migrants in writing the Victory Calypso with its lyrics Cricket, Lovely Cricket to celebrate the West Indies cricket team's first victory over England in England, in the Second Test at Lord's in June 1950. This epitomised an event that historian and cricket enthusiast C. L. R. James defined as crucial to West Indian post-colonial societies.
