ONE-EYED MEN.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18833, 23 March 1931, Page 2

ONE-EYED MEN.

NELSON, WOLSELEY, ROBERTS. When one remembers Kipling’s poem on the multocular gifts of the late Lord Roberts it is strange to find that the great field-marshal was blind in one eye from childhood. This fact is disclosed by Lieutenant-General Sir Gerald F. Ellison in the October issue of the “Lancashire Lady,” the Loyal Regiment’s Journal. Sir Gerald states that when he was principal private secretary to Lord Haldane he received the following letter from Lord Roberts:—“Dear Ellison, —Please show this correspondence to Mr Haldane. It seems to me very absurd to refuse a man who volunteered to serve in the auxiliary forces because he wore spectacles. In foreign armies this lias not been, and there are several offioers in the army who wear eyeglasses. I lost the sight of one eye as an infant from brain fever, and under existing regulations I could not have entered the army. Believe me, yours sincerely, Roberts, 9th December, 1906.” Remarking that this letter, will come ae a revelation to the mass of hi a coun-

trymen and countrywomen, Sir Gerald recalls that some years later when lunching with the late Field-Marshal Lord Nicholson, he mentioned the letter. “Have you got that in writing?” asked Lord Nicholson, and when answered yes, remarked, “Well, I am most surprised. It is quite true that Lord Roberts sees with one eye only, but he has been extremely anxious all his life to conceal the fact.” Sir Gerald adds that he cannot help regarding the letter as of national interest, and importance, and proposes depositing it for safe custody with the Royal United Services Institute in Whitehall. It seems a remarkable fact, he adds, that three of England's greatest commanders of the 19th century— Nelson, Wolseley and Roberts—should have all been one-eyed men.