Roberts, Frederick Sleigh

   , Earl Roberts of Kandahar and Pretoria

(1832–1914)

   A talented and popular British general, Roberts made his name fighting in India, Afghanistan, and South Africa, becoming commander-in-chief of the British Army in 1900. Roberts was commissioned into the East India Company ’s army in 1851, and won the Victoria Cross during the Indian Mutiny. He was an artillery officer who served much of his career in the quartermaster’s department, and subsequent to the abolition of native artillery units after the mutiny was absorbed into the British army. He served with Napier’s expedition to Abyssinia in 1868.

   Roberts was then appointed to command on the Punjab frontier in 1878, as tensions with Afghanistan rose. After the initial British occupation of Kabul, a temporary peace lasted until the British resident at Kabul and his aides were murdered. Roberts led an avenging force into the city, and controversially executed those held responsible for the murders. An uprising near Kandahar led Roberts to lead a picked force to defeat the Afghans and occupy that city, winning him public renown. He subsequently rose to command the Indian Army, where his chief preoccupation was the perceived danger of a Russian advance through Afghanistan. Roberts was elevated to the peerage in 1892, and left the Indian command in 1893. Following Britain’s initial defeats in the Boer War, Roberts was appointed to command there in December 1899, the same month in which his son was killed in the action that won him, like his father, a Victoria Cross. Roberts led a successful advance across South Africa, occupying Pretoria on June 5, 1900, but failing to destroy the Boer forces entirely or to capture their leaders - another two years of guerilla warfare lay ahead.

   Roberts returned to Britain to succeed Lord Wolseley as commander-in-chief of the British Army. In retirement, he led the National Service League, which campaigned for the introduction of peacetime conscription to counter the German threat. A firm Unionist, he advised the Ulster Volunteer Force and supported the refusal of many officers to serve against Ulster during the Curragh “mutiny” of 1914. He died in November 1914 while visiting troops in France.

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   FURTHER READING:

    Childers, Erkine. War and the Arme Blanche. London: E. Arnold, 1910;

    Hannah, W. H. Kipling ’ s General: The Life of Field-Marshal Earl Roberts of Kanahar. London: Lee Cooper, 1972;

    Roberts, Frederick Sleigh. Forty-One Years in India. New York: Longman, Green & Co., 1898.

   MARK F. PROUDMAN