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VC, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI,
GCIE, KStJ, VD, PC, FRSGS (30 September 1832 – 14 November 1914) was one
of the most successful British military commanders of his time. He
served in the Indian Rebellion, the Expedition to Abyssinia and the
Second Anglo-Afghan War before leading British Forces to success in the
Second Boer War. He also became the last Commander-in-Chief of the
Forces before the post was abolished in 1904. He was known and referred
to (but not to his face) as "Bobs". His son was called "Young Bobs"
Born at Cawnpore, India, on 30 September 1832, Roberts was the son of
General Sir Abraham Roberts, a native of County Waterford in the
south-east of Ireland. At the time Sir Abraham was commanding the 1st
Bengal European Regiment. Roberts was named Sleigh in honour of the
garrison commander, Major General William Sleigh. His mother was
Edinburgh-born Isabella Bunbury, daughter of Major Abraham Bunbury from
Kilfeacle in County Tipperary.
Roberts was educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and Addiscombe Military
Seminary before entering the East India Company Army as a second
lieutenant with the Bengal Artillery on 12 December 1851. He became
Aide-de-Camp to his father in 1852, transferred to the Bengal Horse
Artillery in 1854 and was promoted to lieutenant on 31 May 1857.
Roberts fought in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 seeing action during the
siege and capture of Delhi where he was slightly wounded, and being
present at the relief of Lucknow, where, as Deputy Assistant
Quartermaster-General, he was attached to the staff of Sir Colin
Campbell, Commander-in-Chief, India. He was awarded the Victoria Cross
for actions on 2 January 1858 at Khudaganj. The citation reads:
Lieutenant Roberts' gallantry has on every occasion been most marked.
On following the
retreating enemy on 2 January 1858, at Khodagunge, he saw in the
distance two Sepoys going away with a standard. Lieutenant Roberts put
spurs to his horse, and overtook them just as they were about to enter a
village. They immediately turned round, and presented their muskets at
him, and one of the men pulled the trigger, but fortunately the caps
snapped, and the standard-bearer was cut down by this gallant young
officer, and the standard taken possession of by him. He also, on the
same day, cut down another Sepoy who was standing at bay, with musket
and bayonet, keeping off a Sowar. Lieutenant Roberts rode to the
assistance of the horseman, and, rushing at the Sepoy, with one blow of
his sword cut him across the face, killing him on the spot.
He was also mentioned in despatches for his service at Lucknow in March
1858. In common with other officers he transferred from the East India
Company Army to the Indian Army that year.
Having been promoted to second captain on 12 November 1860 and to brevet
major on 13 November 1860, he transferred to the British Army in 1861
and served in the Umbeyla and Abyssinian campaigns of 1863 and 1867–1868
respectively. Having been promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 15
August 1868 and to the substantive rank of captain on 18 November 1868,
Roberts also fought in the Lushai campaign of 1871–1872.
He was promoted to the substantive rank of major on 5 July 1872,
appointed Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on 10 September 1872
and promoted to brevet colonel on 30 January 1875. That year he became
Quartermaster-General of the Bengal Army.
He was given command of the Kurram field force in March 1878 and took
part in the Second Anglo-Afghan War, distinguishing himself enough at
the Battle of Peiwar Kotal in November 1878 to receive the thanks of
Parliament, be promoted to the substantive rank of major general on 31
December 1878 and be advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the
Bath (KCB) on 25 July 1879.
In September 1879 he was despatched, along with Maurice Abraham Cohen an
expert in the Urdu language, to Kabul to seek retribution for the death
of Sir Louis Cavagnari, the British envoy there. He was also given the
local rank of lieutenant-general on 11 November 1879. He was commander
of the Kabul Field Force and brought at least 20 field guns (usually
horse-drawn mobile cannons) with his army during the conquest and
occupation of Kabul during the second phase of the war. His move against
Kabul was sparked by the assassination of Cavagnari, the British envoy
in Kabul and the official who had signed the Treaty of Gandamak with
Amir Mohammad Yaqub Khan in May of that year.
After completing his mission to occupy Kabul, he was appointed commander
of the Kabul and Kandahar field force and led his 10,000 troops across
300 miles of rough terrain in Afghanistan to relieve Kandahar and defeat
Ayub Khan at the Battle of Kandahar on 1 September 1880. For his
services, Roberts again received the thanks of Parliament, and was
advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) on 21
September 1880 and appointed Companion of the Order of the Indian Empire
(CIE) during 1880.
After a very brief interval as Governor of Natal and Governor and
Commander-in-Chief of the Transvaal Province and High Commissioner for
South Eastern Africa with effect from 7 March 1881, Roberts (having
become a baronet on 11 June 1881) was appointed Commander-in-Chief of
the Madras Army on 16 November 1881. Promoted to the substantive rank of
lieutenant general on 26 July 1883, he became Commander-in-Chief, India
on 28 November 1885 and was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of
the Indian Empire (KCIE) on 15 February 1887 and to Knight Grand
Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire (GCIE) on reorganisation of
the Order on 21 June 1887. This was followed by his promotion to a
supernumerary general on 28 November 1890 and to the substantive rank of
general on 31 December 1891. On 23 February 1892 he was created Baron
Roberts of Kandahar in Afghanistan and of the City of Waterford.
After relinquishing his Indian command and becoming Knight Grand
Commander of the Order of the Star of India (GCSI) on 3 June 1893, Lord
Roberts was relocated to Ireland as Commander-in-Chief of British forces
there from 1 October 1895. He was promoted field marshal on 25 May 1895
and created a knight of the Order of St Patrick during 1897.
While in Ireland, Roberts completed a memoir of his years in India,
which was published in 1897 as Forty-one Years in India: from Subaltern
to Commander-in-chief.
On 23 December 1899 Roberts returned to South Africa on the RMS Dunottar
Castle to take overall command of British forces in the Second Boer War,
subordinating the previous commander, General Redvers Buller. His
appointment was a response to a string of defeats in the early weeks of
the war and was accompanied by the despatch of huge reinforcements. For
his headquarters staff, he appointed military men from far and wide:
Lord Kitchener (Chief of Staff) from the Sudan, Frederick Burnham (Chief
of Scouts), the American scout, from the Klondike, George Henderson from
the Staff College, Neville Chamberlain from Afghanistan and William
Nicholson (Military Secretary) from Calcutta. Roberts launched a
two-pronged offensive, personally leading the advance across the open
veldt into the Orange Free State, while Buller sought to eject the Boers
from the hills of Natal - during which, Lord Roberts's son was killed,
earning a posthumous V.C.
Having raised the Siege of Kimberley, at the Battle of Paardeberg on 27
February 1900 Roberts forced the Boer General Piet Cronjé to surrender
with some 4,000 men. After another victory at Poplar Grove, Roberts
captured the Free State capital Bloemfontein on 13 March. His further
advance was delayed by his disastrous attempt to reorganise his army's
logistic system on the Indian Army model in the midst of the war. The
resulting chaos and shortage of supplies contributed to a severe typhoid
epidemic that inflicted far heavier losses on the British forces than
they suffered in combat.
On 3 May Roberts resumed his offensive towards the Transvaal, capturing
its capital Pretoria on 31 May. Having defeated the Boers at Diamond
Hill and linked up with Buller, he won the last victory of his career at
Bergendal on 27 August.
Strategies devised by Roberts, to force the Boer commandos to submit,
included concentration camps and the burning of farms. Conditions in the
concentration camps, which had been conceived by Roberts as a form of
control of the families whose farms he had destroyed, began to
degenerate rapidly as the large influx of Boers outstripped the ability
of the minuscule British force to cope. The camps lacked space, food,
sanitation, medicine, and medical care, leading to rampant disease and a
very high death rate for those Boers who entered. Eventually 26,370
women and children (81% were children) died in the concentration camps.
The Boer forces disintegrated, and with the war apparently effectively
over, Roberts handed over command on 12 December to Lord Kitchener. He
returned to England to receive yet more honours: he was made a Knight of
the Order of the Garter and also created Earl Roberts of Kandahar in
Afghanistan and Pretoria in the Transvaal Colony and of the City of
Waterford and Viscount St Pierre.
He became a Knight of Grace of the Order of St John on 11 March 1901 and
then a Knight of Justice of that order on 3 July 1901. He was also
awarded the German Order of the Black Eagle during the Kaiser´s visit to
the United Kingdom in February 1901. He was among the original
recipients of the Order of Merit in the 1902 Coronation Honours list
published on 26 June 1902, and received the order from King Edward VII
at Buckingham Palace on 8 August 1902.
Lord Roberts became the last Commander-in-Chief of the Forces on 3
January 1901. During his time in office he introduced the Short Magazine
Lee Enfield Rifle and the 18-pounder Gun and provided improved education
and training for soldiers. In September 1902, Lord Roberts and St John
Brodrick, Secretary of State for War, visited Germany to attend the
German army maneuvers as guest of the Emperor Wilhelm. He served as
Commander-in-Chief for three years before the post was abolished as
recommended by Lord Esher in the Esher Report in February 1904.
He was the initial president of the Pilgrims Society during 1902.
In retirement he was a keen advocate of introducing conscription in
Britain (directing the National Service League) to prepare for a great
European war. Following his return from the Boer War, he was
instrumental in promoting the mass training of civilians in rifle
shooting skills through membership of shooting clubs, and a facsimile of
his signature appears to this day on all official targets of the
National Smallbore Rifle Association.
In 1907 a selection of his speeches was published under the title A
Nation in Arms. Roberts provided William Le Queux with information for
his novel The Invasion of 1910 and checked the proofs.[60] In 1910
Roberts' friend Ian Hamilton, in co-operation with the Secretary of
State for War, Richard Haldane, published Compulsory Service in which he
attacked Roberts' advocacy of conscription. This caused much hurt to
Roberts. He replied, with the help of Leo Amery and J. A. Cramb, with
Fallacies and Facts (1911).
In an important speech in Manchester's Free Trade Hall on 22 October
1912 Roberts pointed out that Cobden and Bright's prediction that peace
and universal disarmament would follow the adoption of free trade had
not happened. He further warned of the threat posed by Germany:
In the year 1912, just as in 1866 and just as in 1870, war will take
place the instant the German forces by land and sea are, by their
superiority at every point, as certain of victory as anything in human
calculation can be made certain...We may stand still. Germany always
advances and the direction of her advance, the line along which she is
moving, is now most manifest. It is towards...complete supremacy by land
and sea.
He claimed that Germany was making enormous efforts to prepare for war
and ended his speech by saying:
Gentlemen, only the other day I completed my eightieth year...and the
words I am speaking to-day are, therefore, old words—the result of years
of earnest thought and practical experience. But, Gentlemen, my
fellow-citizens and fellow-Britishers, citizens of this great and sacred
trust, this Empire, if these were my last words, I still should say to
you—“arm yourselves” and if I put to myself the question, How can I,
even at this late and solemn hour, best help England,—England that to me
has been so much, England that for me has done so much—again I say, “Arm
and prepare to acquit yourselves like men, for the day of your ordeal is
at hand.”
The historian A. J. A. Morris claimed that this speech caused a
sensation due to Roberts' warnings about Germany. It was much criticised
by the Liberal and Radical press. The Manchester Guardian was disgusted
at the insinuation that the German Government's views of international
policy are less scrupulous and more cynical than those of other
Governments...Prussia's character among nations is, in fact, not very
different from the character which Lancashire men give to themselves as
compared with other Englishmen. It is blunt, straightforward, and
unsentimental.
The Nation claimed Roberts had an "unimaginative soldier's brain" and
that Germany was "a friendly Power" who since 1870 "has remained the
most peaceful and the most self-contained, though doubtless not the most
sympathetic, member of the European family". The historian John Terraine,
writing in 1993, said: "At this distance of time the verdict upon Lord
Robert's Manchester speech must be that, in speaking out clearly on the
probability of war, he was doing a patriotic service comparable to
Churchill's during the Thirties".
Roberts became vice-president of the Public Schools Alpine Sports Club
during 1903. Eight years later on 11 January 1911, the Roberts of
Kandahar Challenge Cup (so named because Roberts donated the trophy cup)
was organised at Crans-Montana (Cranssur-Sierre) by winter sports
pioneer Arnold Lunn. An important part of the history of skiing, the
races was a forerunner of the downhill ski race. The Kandahar Ski Club,
founded by Lunn, was named after the Cup and subsequently lent its name
to the Arlberg-Kandahar ski race. The name Kandahar is still used for
the premier races of the FIS Alpine Ski World Cup circuit.
He took part in the funeral processions following the deaths of Queen
Victoria in January 1901 and King Edward VII in May 1910.
Roberts was approached for advice about the Ulster Voluntary Force,
formed in January 1913 by Ulstermen who had no wish to be part of a Home
Rule Ireland. Too old himself to take active command, Roberts
recommended Lieutenant General Sir George Richardson, formerly of the
Indian Army, as commander.
On the morning of 20 March — the morning of Paget's speech which
provoked the Curragh incident, in which Hubert Gough and other officers
threatened to resign rather than coerce Ulster — Roberts, aided by
Wilson, drafted a letter to the Prime Minister, urging him not to cause
a split in the army.
Roberts had asked the CIGS John French to come and see him at Ascot on
19 March; French had been too busy but invited Roberts to visit him when
next in London. On the morning of 21 March Roberts and French had an
acrimonious telephone conversation in which Roberts told French that he
would share the blame if he collaborated with the Cabinet's "dastardly"
attempt to coerce Ulster, and then, after French told him that he would
"do his duty as a soldier" and obey lawful orders, put the phone down on
him. Soon after, Roberts received a telegram from Hubert Gough,
purporting to ask for advice, although possibly designed to goad him
into further action. Roberts requested an audience with King George V,
who told him that Seely (Secretary of State for War), to whom the King
had recently spoken, had complained that Roberts was "at the bottom" of
the matter, had incited Gough, and had called the politicians "swine and
robbers" in his phone conversation with French. Roberts indignantly
denied this, claiming that he had not been in contact with Gough for
"years" and that he had advised officers not to resign. Roberts's claim
may not be the whole truth as Gough was on first name terms with
Roberts's daughter and later gave her copies of key documents relating
to the Incident.
Roberts also had an interview with Seely (he was unable to locate
French, who was in fact himself having an audience with the King at the
time) but came away thinking him "drunk with power", although he learned
that Paget had been acting without authority (in talking of "commencing
active operations" against Ulster and in offering officers a chance to
discuss hypothetical orders and to threaten to resign) and left a note
for Hubert Gough to this effect. This note influenced the Gough brothers
in being willing to remain in the Army, albeit with a written guarantee
that the Army would not have to act against Ulster. After Roberts's
lobbying, the King insisted that Asquith make no further troop movements
in Ulster without consulting him.
Roberts wrote to French (22 March) denying the "swine and robbers"
comment, although French's reply stressed his hurt that Roberts had
thought so ill of him.
Roberts died of pneumonia at St Omer, France, on 14 November 1914 while
visiting Indian troops fighting in the First World War. His body was
taken to Ascot by special train for a funeral service on 18 November
before being taken to London.[80] After lying in state in Westminster
Hall (one of two individuals who were not members of the royal family to
do so during the 20th century, the other being Sir Winston Churchill),
he was given a state funeral and was then buried in St. Paul's
Cathedral.
Roberts had lived at Englemere House at Ascot in Berkshire. His estate
was probated during 1915 at £77,304 (equivalent to £7.29 million today).
On 28 February 1908 he was awarded the Volunteer Officers' Decoration in
recognition of his honorary service in the Volunteer Force.
His long list of honorary military posts included: honorary colonel of
the 2nd London Corps from 24 September 1887, honorary colonel of the 5th
Battalion, the Sherwood Foresters (Derbyshire Regiment) from 29 December
1888, honorary colonel of the 1st Newcastle upon Tyne (Western
Division), Royal Artillery from 18 April 1894, honorary colonel of the
Waterford Artillery (Southern Division) from 4 March 1896,
colonel-commandant of the Royal Artillery from 7 October 1896, honorary
colonel of the 3rd Battalion, the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment from 1
January 1898, honorary colonel of the City of London Imperial Volunteers
from 10 March 1900, honorary colonel of the 3rd Volunteer Battalion, the
Gloucestershire Regiment from 5 September 1900, colonel of the Irish
Guards from 17 October 1900, honorary colonel of the 2nd Hampshire
(Southern Division), Royal Garrison Artillery from 15 August 1901,
honorary colonel of the 3rd (Dundee Highland) Volunteer Battalion, the
Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) from 19 September 1903, honorary colonel
of the North Somerset Yeomanry from 1 April 1908, honorary colonel of
the 6th Battalion, the City of London (Rifles') Regiment from 1 April
1908, honorary colonel of the 1st Wessex Brigade from 1 April 1908,
honorary colonel of 6th Battalion, The Gloucestershire Regiment from 1
April 1908, honorary colonel of The Waterford Royal Field Reserve
Artillery from 2 August 1908 and honorary colonel of 1st (Hull)
Battalion, The East Yorkshire Regiment from 11 November 1914 (three days
before his death). Additionally he was Colonel of the National Reserve
from 5 August 1911.
Lord Roberts received civic honours from a number of universities,
cities and livery companies, including:
Honorary Freedom of the City of Cardiff - 26 January 1894
Honorary Freedom of the borough of Portsmouth – 1898 (and received a
Sword of Honour from the town in 1902)
Honorary Freedom of the City of Canterbury - 26 August 1902
Honorary Freedom of the borough of Dover - 28 August 1902
Honorary Freedom of the City of Bath - 26 September 1902
Honorary Freedom of the City of Winchester – 9 October 1902
Honorary Freedom of the City of Liverpool – 11 October 1902
Honorary Freedom of the borough of Croydon – 14 October 1902
Honorary Freedom of the borough of Bournemouth – 22 October 1902
Honorary Freeman, Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
In 1893 He was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Scottish
Geographical Society (FRSGS).
Roberts married Nora Henrietta Bews on 17 May 1859; they had six
children of whom three, a son and two daughters, survived infancy. His
son Frederick Hugh Sherston Roberts VC was killed in action on 17
December 1899 at the Battle of Colenso during the Boer War. Roberts and
his son were one of only three pairs of fathers and sons to be awarded
the VC. Today, their Victoria Crosses are in the National Army Museum.
His barony became extinct, but by the special remainder granted with
them he was succeeded in the earldom and viscountcy by his elder
surviving daughter, Aileen. She was succeeded by her younger sister
Edwina, who died in 1955.
An American with Lord Roberts
by Ralph, Julian
Lord Roberts, a biography
By Violet Brooke-Hunt (1901) (pdf)
The story of Lord Roberts
By Harold Felix Baker Wheeler (1915) (pdf) |
