Frederick Roberts is born in 1832 in India where his father serves for 50 years as General in the East India Company Army, a British joint stock firm which founds the country in 1652. After graduating from Eton and Sandhurst, the son joins the Company in 1851 as a 2nd Lieutenant. In 1857 he wins the Victoria Cross for valor in suppressing the Indian Sepoy (infantry) Rebellion. Roberts transfers in 1861 to the British Army, fighting in additional campaigns in Afghanistan and Ethiopia and winning a series of promotions: from Major (1872) to Brevet Lt Gen (1879). In 1881 he returns to India in charge of all British forces as Lt. General. He is popular among his troops who nickname him “Bobs,” and in 1897 he authors a book: Forty-one Years in India: from Subaltern to Commander-in-Chief. After General Redford Bullers suffers a series of defeats against the local Boers (farmers) in Natal, Roberts replaces him in December 1899. He marches his army into the Transvaal, capturing the capital of Pretoria in May 1901 after his Chief of Staff, Herbert Kitchener (hero of Khartoum), conquers the Orange State capital of Bloemfontein in March. Robert’s son is KIA before he returns to London in November 1900, leaving Kitchener to fight a bloody guerrilla war for two more years. Back home he is C-in-C of all British Forces before retiring in 1904. He urges military preparedness and warns of the German threat prior to WWI before dying in November 1914.
Lord Frederick Roberts
