Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts
Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts (30 September 1832 – 14 November 1914), was the last Commander-in-Chief of the British Army, a celebrated combat leader of the Victorian wars, and — in Afghan memory — the man who marched ten thousand men three hundred miles in three weeks to break a siege and close a war.[1][2]
Born to the army in India
Roberts was born at Cawnpore to an Anglo-Irish family: his father, General Sir Abraham Roberts, was a distinguished officer of the Bengal artillery. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst, the younger Roberts entered the East India Company's service in 1851 and saw his first action in the Indian Mutiny, earning the Victoria Cross for gallantry at the relief of Lucknow.[2][3]
Afghanistan and the march
Transferred to the British Army, Roberts fought in Abyssinia before arriving in Afghanistan for the Second Anglo-Afghan War. He commanded the Kurram Valley Field Force, turning the Afghan position at the Battle of Peiwar Kotal with a celebrated night march, then took Kabul after the victory at Charasiab and held the Sherpur Cantonment through a winter siege. The disaster at Maiwand — where Ayub Khan destroyed Burrows' brigade — drew Roberts west: on 8 August 1880 he left Kabul with some ten thousand men, and in twenty days covered three hundred miles of summer heat and mountain roads, nearly dying of fever himself before entering Kandahar on 31 August. On 1 September he defeated Ayub Khan outside the city, closing the war. The march became the centrepiece of his legend; he received the thanks of Parliament and a baronetcy, and was made Lord Roberts of Kandahar.[1][2]
Commander-in-Chief and elder statesman
Roberts served as Commander-in-Chief in India from 1885 to 1893, devoting himself to improving infantry marksmanship and pressing the government to fund roads into the Himalaya against the Russian threat. In 1892 he was created Baron Roberts. Recalled to lead British forces in the Second Boer War, he ended a string of defeats and turned the campaign around before handing over to Kitchener. In 1901 he became the last Commander-in-Chief of the Forces — the office was abolished in 1904 — and was created Earl Roberts. He advocated compulsory military service, foreseeing a great European war; he died in France in November 1914, visiting Indian troops on the Western Front, and was buried in St Paul's Cathedral.[2][3]