Aldwyn Roberts HBM DA (18 April 1922 – 11 February 2000), better known by the stage name Lord Kitchener (or "Kitch"), was a Trinidadian calypsonian.
He has been described as "the grand master of calypso" and "the greatest calypsonian of the post-war age".
Roberts was born in Arima, Trinidad and Tobago, the son of a blacksmith, Stephen, and housewife, Albertha.
He 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.
He moved to Port of Spain, the capital of Trinidad in 1943 where he joined the Roving Brigade.
He was spotted singing "Mary I am Tired and Disgusted" (aka "Green Fig") with the group by Johnny Khan, who invited him to perform in his Victory Tent, where he met fellow calypsonian Growling Tiger, who decided Roberts should from that point be known as Lord Kitchener.
He became known as an innovator, introducing musical and lyrical changes, including frequent criticism of the British government's control of the island.
During World War II Kitchener became popular with US troops based on the island, leading to performances in New York. After the end of World War II, the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival took place in early March 1946, during which Kitchener won his very first official Road March title with a catchy calypso leggo called "Jump in The Line".
He toured Jamaica for six months in 1947–48 with Lord Beginner (Egbert Moore) and Lord Woodbine (Harold Phillips) before they took 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", "Food from the West Indies", "Tie Tongue Mopsy", and "Alec Bedser Calypso", while remaining popular in Trinidad and Tobago.
In 1952, he met his wife Elsie Lines. They married in 1953, and lived for a period in Manchester where Kitchener ran a nightclub.
Together, they adopted a baby, to be named Tyrone Roberts, and the three of them moved back to Trinidad.
They divorced in 1968. He later married and had four children (Christian, Kernel, Quweina and Kirnister Roberts) with Valerie Green, and also had a relationship with Betsy Pollard.
Kitchener's son Kernal Roberts is also a performer, playing drums for a soca band Traffik in the 90's and then in the early 2000s, Xtatik. He was also their musical director and is a composer of multiple Soca Monarch and Road March titles.
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