Roberts, LORD, G.C.B., V.C., G.C.I.E., K.P., K.G.

Roberts, LORD, G.C.B., V.C., G.C.I.E., K.P., K.G., made baron in 1892, earl in 1901, was born at Cawnpore, 30th September 1832, the son of General Sir Abraham Roberts. He was brought to England when two years old, educated at Clifton, Eton, Sandhurst, and Addiscombe, and entered the Bengal Artillery in 1851. His first taste of actual warfare was got in the hot time of the siege of Delhi, during the Mutiny, and he took an active part in the subsequent operations down to the relief of Lucknow, acting on the staff, in the quartermaster-general's department, and he won the V.C. He discharged the duties of assistant quartermaster-general in the Abyssinian expedition of 1868, and in the Lushai expedition of 1871–72. On the outbreak of the Afghan war in 1878, Roberts, now major-general, was appointed to command the Kurram division of the army. He forced in brilliant fashion the Afghan position on the peak of Peiwar Kotul (8500 feet above sea-level), and was rewarded with a knight-commander-ship of the Bath (1879). After the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari and the escort of the British mission at Kabul, he was given the command of the force sent to avenge them. He defeated the Afghans at Charásia on 6th October, took possession of Kabul on the 12th, and assumed the government of the country, Yákúb Khan having abdicated. Events followed quickly: the fortified cantonment of Sherpur was occupied by the British army, the fortress of Bala Hissar in Kabul was dismantled, Yákúb Khan was sent a prisoner to India, the Afghans began to concentrate on Kabul, General Roberts sought to check them, and there was much sharp fighting round the city, Abdul Rahman was proclaimed Ameer, and General Burrows was crushingly defeated at Maiwand, and the British garrison of Kandahar besieged by the followers of Ayub Khan. On 9th August Sir F. Roberts set out with 10,148 troops, 8143 native followers, and 11,224 baggage animals on his memorable march through the heart of Afghanistan to the relief of Kandahar, which he reached three weeks later. He immediately gave battle to Ayub Khan, and routed him completely, capturing all his artillery and his camp. When he visited England towards the close of the year he was honoured with a baronetcy, and on his return to India was appointed commander-in-chief of the Madras army (1881), and from 1885 till he resigned the post in 1893, held the rank of commander-in-chief in India. In 1895 he was made Field-marshal Lord Roberts 'of Kandahar and Waterford,' and Commander of the Forces in Ireland; is also G.C.S.I., LL.D. of Cambridge, &c. In December 1899 he was sent to South Africa to take chief command in the Transvaal War, with Lord Kitchener (q.v.) as chief of his staff. Here he had eventually nearly 200,000 men under his command, the largest British army ever engaged in any war. After a brilliant series of engagements (capturing Commandant Cronje and 4000 men) he occupied Bloemfontein and hoisted the British flag in Pretoria (5th June 1900); and the South African Republic and the Orange Free State were proclaimed British colonies. In December 1900, on the practical completion of the war, he returned to England to take the post of commander-in-chief of the forces. See a Life by C. R. Low (1883), but especially Lord Roberts's own brilliantly successful work, Forty-one Years in India (1896).