SIXTY YEARS A SOLDIER

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 119, 16 November 1914, Page 2

SIXTY YEARS A SOLDIER

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN. SKETCH OF LORD ROBERTS'S CAREER. With the death of Lord Roberts passes off the stage the greatest figure in British military history since Wellington. It is indeed a remarkable coincidence that the careers of the two gieat soldiers are in a sense linked together, for the hero of Kandahar and Pretoria entered the Army in 1851, the year before th« victor of the Peninsula and Waterloo was laid to rest in St. Paul's Cathedral. It is strange, also, that both men were, within a few months, the same ago when they died— in their 83rd year. Thus, the lives of the two warriors cover a. period of over a century and a lialf— th© most glorious epoch of British arm* in Europe and throughout the world. Both men, too, were Irishmen, and both men laid the foundation of their military careers in India. It was here that Frederick Sleigh Roberts was born on the 30th September, 1832, at Cawnpore, the second son of General Sir Abraham Roberts, known as the "Patriarch of Indian Generals." Educated at Eton, Sandhurst, and Addiscombe, he obtained a commission in the Bengal Artillery on 12th December, 1851. On the outbreak of tho Mutiny in 1857, young Roberts was staff officer to the movable column operating against the mutineers in the Punjab under Colonels Neville Chamberlain and John Nicholson. Towards the end of June he joined the Delhi Field Force, and was Depiitj Assistant Quarter-master-General during the operations against Delhi. He rejoined the head- j quarters staff for the assault, and took part in the storming of the city and the seven days' street fighting that followed He then accompanied Colonel Greathed's column to Cawnpore, and during September and October was present at the actions of Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Agra, Bithur, and Kanauj. He served under* Sir Colin Campbell at the second relief of Lucknow in November, sit the battle of Cawnpore on the 6th December, and the subsequent pureuit and defeat of the Gwalior contingent near Shurajpur. Roberts distinguished himself at the engagement of Khudaganj by capturing, in single-handed combat, a standard from two sepoys and also by cutting down a sepoy about to kill a eowar. For these • acts of gallantry he was recommended for the Victoria Cross. He wa-s present at the reoccupation of Fategarh on 6th. January, the etorming of Mianganj in February the sioge and capture of Luck; now in March, and the action at Kurei on the 22nd of that month, after which he went Home on sick leave. For his B_ervic«s in the Mutiny he jv&* efiven

times mentioned in despatches, received the medal with three clasps, the Victoria Cross, and on his promotion to captain, in October, 1860, a brevet majority. _ On his return to India after his marriage he took part in the organisations of the Viceroy's camps, and subsequently in the Umbeyla campaign among the mountains to tho north of Peshawar, and was present at the storming of Lalu, the capture of Umbeyla, and the destruction of Mulka, receiving for his services the medal and clasp. In the Abyssinian campaign of 1867 he acted as assistant quar-termaster-general to the Bengal Brigade, under Sir Donald Stewart. He had charge of the transport and re-embarka-tion. His duties were so well performed that Sir Robert Napier Bent him homo with his final despatches. He was three times mentioned, ahd received a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy and the war medal. He returned to India the following year, and during the earlier 'seventies took part in many of the expeditions which are part and parcel of Indian military life, all with honour. For his services i» the Burma expedition of 1871-72 he was made a Companion of the Bath. In 1875 he vas piomoted quartermastergeneral and colonel. He had charge of the arrangements for the visit of the Prince of Wales,' afterwards King Edward VII., in 1876, and for the great Durbar at Delhi in 1877, when Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India. It was in the Afghan war of 1878-1880 that Roberts won world-wide fame as a great commander. In 1878, on the repulse of the Chamberlain mission by the Afghans) he was given the command of the Kurran Field Force, with the rank of major-general. His operations were brilliant and successful, and in July of 1879 he was able to return to Simla to take his seat on the Army Commission. While he was there news arrived of the murder of Sir Louis Cavagnari, the British Envoy at Kabul. Roberts at once set out to pick up Mb forces, which were on the return to India. He took command of the Kabul 'Field Force of 7500 men and 22 guns. An Afghan force of 8000 men blocked tho way in a strong position on the heights beyond Charasia. On 6th October Roberts repeated his strategy of the previous campaign against Peiwar Kotal, and outflanked the Afghans, compelling them to retreat. Kabul was occupied without further opposition. Yakub Khan, the Amir, abdicated on tho 12th October and was deported to India. In November a religious war was proclaimed by the Mullahs, and Roberts, with his small force, was besieged at Sherpur by over 100,000 Afghans. The general repulsed their attacks, inflicting heavy losses, and then moved out of his retrenchments and assailed them on the flank in open field, dispersing the whole force. On the 22nd July, 1880, Abdur Rahman was Amir of Kabul, and Roberts was preparing to withdraw his troops to India ! when news came that a British brigade under General Burrows had been totally defeated at Maiwand, and that General Primrose was besieged in Kandahar. Roberts was ordered to proceed there with a specially selected column of 10..000 • troops and his new transport corps. He started' on one of the .most famous marches in history on the 19th August, and arrived at Kandahar on the morning of the 31st, having covered 313 miles through the wilds of Afghanistan in 22 days. The following day he fought the battle of Kandahar, and gained a complete victory. Hiß services in tho Afghan campaigns of 1878 to 1880 are recorded in eight Gazettes, and were recognised by the, thanks of the Houses of Parliament, of the Government of India, and of the Governor-General in Council. Ho was created X.C.8., G.C.8., and a baronet, received the medal with four clasps and the bronze star, and was given the command of the Madras Army. For _ the next twenty years Sir Frederick Roberts, as he then was, con tinued to do splendid service for the Empire. At the time of the first Boer War, after Majuba' Hill, he was ap' pointed Commander-in-Chief m South Africa, but when ho arrived at Cnpetown he found that peace had already been made with the Boers. Had he been given a chance in 1881 it is doubtful whether the second Boer war would ever have taken place. Roberts returned to India and commanded the forces in the Burma campaign of 1886, and for his services was created G.C.1.E., and promoted supernumerary general. He was raised to the Peerage in 1892 as Baron Roberts of Kandabar and Waterford. In 1893 he left India for ever. In 1895 he was promoted field-marshal, and succeeded Lord WolSeley in the Irish command. Of the crown to Earl Roberts's military career of active service there is little need (to dwell here, as his wonderful march to Pretoria in 1900 during the second Boer war is familiar to everybody. After the disasters in the black December of 1899 at Magersfontein, Stormberg, and Colenso, where his only son was killed, Lord Roberts, then nearing his seventieth year, took command. In a short space of time the aspect of affairs was completely changed.'' The great General hit straight at the heart of the enemy, marching first on Bloemfonteiti and then on Pretoria, which he entered on 15th June. The war then assumed a guerrilla aspect, and Lord Kitchener took charge. For his services < in South Africa Earl Roberts received the thanks of both Houses, and a grant of £100,000. In 1905 he resigned his post on the' Committee of National Defence, and from that time to his duath took a very active part in the movement to waken the nation to the danger from Germany. He advocated universal military service, both on the platform and in the press, and his prognostications have proved remarkably correct. To the end he endeavoured to serve his country by addressing patriotic meetings in appeals for recruits and by frequent articles and letters in the press. His death removes a great influence from the Empire, and a man who was beloved by all who knew him, of all ranks and classes. He embodied the ideal of the officer and the gentleman of the British tradition. In stature he was small, but alert and well set up, with a blue eye that never lost its fire even in his extreme old age. He remained vigorous to the end in mind and body, and one of the best articles he ever wrote appeared only last month in the Hibbert Journal. In it the veteran Field-Marshal, after reviewing the causes of the war, urges his countrymen not to underestimate the power of Germany with its sixty-six million people. N "I cannot help thinking that tho great task of subduing that nation will begin when we, with our French, Russian, and Belgian allies, have driven the German armies into the heart of their own territory. "May I give a word of caution to my countrymen against the unsportsmanlike practice of abusing one's enemies? Let us avoid what Mr. Kipling, during the Boer War, described as 'killing Kruger with your mouth.' Let us rather devote all our energies to defeating our foemen by the superior fighting of adequate numbers of British soldiers in the open field. "When we read charges against the German troops, let us remember that gross charges, absolutely untrue, were brought against our own brave soldiers fighting in South Africa. But whether the charges are true or not, let us keep our own hands clean, and let us fight against the Germans in such a way as to earn their liking as well as their respect." Lord Roberts recalls that at the close of his share of the work in the South African War, he said that "our men had behaved like heroes on the battlefield and like gentlemen everywhere."- (This

estimate of our soldiers has, he says, "been fully borne out by their recent deeds." The British Army has the "wonderful faculty of fighting its antagonists without making enemies. It may, indeed, be maintained that British soldiers fight in such a noble way that the enemies whom they vanquish become their friends." It may be mentioned in passing that Earl Roberts was a life vice'preßident of the New Zealand Association of His Majesty's Veterans.