LORD ROBERTS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIII, Issue 82, 8 April 1902, Page 2

LORD ROBERTS.

ANECDOTES OF EARLY DAYS,

If one were asked to name the man

now living in this country who more than other men combined in the one person all manly virtues (says the "Weekly Scotsman")—a man at once eminently strong- and eminently kindly, a man distinguished, yet modest; personally brave; a man born to command his fellows; and withal a gentleman and a Christian of the cleanest fibre—if one were called upon to name this man, nine out of ten would choose the present Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. The present little sketch is in no way intended as a biography of Lord Roberts, as indeed no sketch could be, for his long life is crowded with important incident.' It is proposed to call attention to one or two features in the character of the gallant soldier that in their combination have stamped him as one Of the greatest figures of his age. In the military capacities of any man there are three great factors—audacity, energy, and resource. Each of these Lord Roberts possesses to a remarkable degree. The first displayed itself notably in the days before he was given supreme command in India, when he led many a fierce fight oh the north-west frontier. In one engagement he actually forced 6000 mixed British and Indian troops against 100,000 of tho enemy, and met the success that such splendid audacity deserved. WINNING THE VICTORIA CROSS. This personal intrepidity always marked his actions. The occasion on which he won his Victoria Cross was an engagement in the course of tho Indian Mutiny at Khudag-anj, on January 2, 1858. The mutineers had broken, and were, being pursued by the British cavalry. In Lord Roberts's own words ("Forty-one Years in India"):— "We overtook a batch of mutineers, who faced about and fired into the squadron at close quarters. I saw Younghusband fall, but I could not go to his assistance, as at that moment one of his sowars was in dire peril from a sepoy, who was attacking him with his fixed bayonet, and had I not helped the man and disposed of his opponent, he must have been killed. The next moment I descried in the distance two sepoys making- off with a standard, which I determined must be captured, so 1 rode after i the rebels, and overtook them, and while wrenching the staff out of the hands of one of them, whom I cut down, the other put his musket close to my body and j fired. Fortunately for me, it missed fire, I and I carried off the standard." : • Lord Roberts puts an asterisk at the j word "standard." and the footnote con'slsts of the simple statement:— "For these two acts I was awarded the Victoria Cross." LOVED BY THE SEPOYS. There is no doubt also that part of his milita.ry success, and, it may be not a small part, is due to his really marvellous power of securing the reverence and love of his men. lie was simply idolised in India by the sepoys. * "In the course of this little episode, he once wrote, describing- an encounter with the Punjaub rebels, "my orderlies displayed such touching devotion that it is with feelings of the most profound admiration and gratitude I call to mind their self-sacrificing courage. On this (as on many other occasions) they kept close ! round me, determined that no shot should ! reach me if they-could prevent it; and ion my being hit in the hand with a spent ! bullet, and turning to look round in the i direction it came from, I beheld one of : the Sikhs standing with his arms stretch!cd out trying to screen me from the ene;my, which he could easily do, for he was la grand specimen of a man, a head and 'shoulders taller than myself." j Another time in a frontier village enjpagement Lord Roberts' men were negotiating a large and heavy ditch. Their j commander was endeavouring to help j some men out of the. ditch when the head | man of the village rushed at him with his knife, seeing which a Mohammedan of the First Bengal Cavalry, wdio was | following him on foot, having just had ! his horse shot under him, sprang at the assailant,and seizing him round the waist threw him to-the bottom of the ditch, thus saving his leader's life. To wholly account for the power he had of drawing men to him is impossible,save by considering that some men possess a I personal fascination that can no more be v 'accounted for than the electricity in a (magnet. But one part of it at any rate I was due to his unvarying kindness and j the tenderness of his heart. j The debt that India owes to Lord Rob- ! erts is a vast one, just as Lord Roberts 'owes the great part of his fame to Tndia. illis family was one of the Anglo-Indian j fighting families, for his father's services Ito that country began almost at the. commencement of last century. I A GRAPHIC PEN PORTRAIT. j A description of him in the hey-day of 'his work and honour there, although he j had not at that time attained high rank. [is from the pen of Archibald Forbes, the I famous war correspondent. It was during the famine which during the -winter of 1873-1 pervaded the densely-populated region of Tirhoot. and Forbes was down seeing the relief work. "One evening the seat opposite to mine." he says, "was occupied by a person who was a stranger to me. As he j walked up to it, T had noticed that he was short and slight, square, however, of shoulder, and of a distinctly military carriage—his whole aspect denoting alertness and a wiry endurance. He had the lair of quiet command one sometimes dis- ! corns in men who have seen much service, when as yet they have not attained high leadership. His face was almost ascetic in its attenuation. Hollow temples indented and narrowed, the lofty forehead that rose above the quick, keen eyes; the lower section of the face was long.'gaunt, and sallow, ending.in a, chin every line of which betokened force and resolution." It was Roberts, down to organise and superintend the famine relief works, one of the many noble, and valuable services he rendered to India outside tho strictly military province. Just one other story. It is of the mighty hunter as a shikarrie, or sportsman, though indeed the incident narrates not so much his own prowess as that of another. But it is a story not often told, and sufficiently amusing. Lord Roberts had wounded a fine boar, and on his making for some rocky ground where it was difficult to follow on horseback. Lord Roberts shouted to his. host the Maharajah Sir Pertrap Sing to get between Wm and the rocks, and turn the boar back. The Maharajah promptly responded, but just as he came face to face with the boar the horse put his foot into a hole and fell.. The boar rushed at the fallen rider, now helpless without the impetus of his horse to give force to the light spear point, and "inflicted a severe gash in his leg with his formidable tusks. Lord Roberts rushed up to his assistance, found the Maharajah bleeding profusely, but* standing erect and holding the boar, who was up on his hind legs, at arm's length, gripping it by the mouth. As Lord Roberts approached, the Maharajah, perhaps feeling his grip slipping, suddenly let go, stooped down, seized the hoar by the hind legs, turned him over on his back, and called upon Lord Roberts to slay him, which deed the latter incontinently performed.