The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1900-01-20
The Hero's Life Has Been One of
Constant Warfare.
IS The IDOL OF BRITISH SOLDIERS
His Many Hair-Breadth Escapes
in Indian Mutinies.

One OF the most interesting figures
in the South African war is General
Lord Roberts,, who has arriced
i'll Cape Town to take CON-
mand of all the British troops
engaged in fighting the Bocrs or all
the brilliant soldiers who have helped
to build the British empire in the East,
none have acquired higher military
fame than Lord Roberts, oi Kandahar,
known to the British private as Little
Bobs.' OF Irish extraction, with a
dash Of French Iluguenot blood in his
veins, Frederick Sleigh Roberts was
born in 1880 at Cawnporc, which he
was afterwards to enter as one OF the
heroes OF all avcnging host. His father,
Sir Abraham Roberts, had attained the
age OF 90 and became the "Patriarch OF
Indian Generals"
After spending his boyhood, like all
lndian-born British children, in Eng
land-at Clifton, Eton. Sandhurst and
.Addiscombc, young Roberts came out
ninth i'll batch Of fifty cadets, and was
at once posted to a lcutcnancy in the
Bombay artillery, At Addiscombe he
had suffered so much from heart COM
plant that reviving sherry had to be
kept at his bedside But il his heart
was functionally weak. it was full Of
the finest courage, though it very nearly
sank on his way through the Red Sea
out to India. Il don't know he said,
how l shall ever be able to fight in
India il it is as hot as this" But what
was the heat of the Red Sea to the
torrid sun-flamcs, intensified by the Sc
poy shell fire OF Delhi, which were be-
ginning to flare up? In May, 1857, news
of the mutiny at Mccrut and the seizure
of Delhi reached Peshawur, where
Lieutenant Roberts was acting as D. A.
Q. G. of the division commanded by
Major-Gcneral Reed; and presently be-
fore Delhi, the headquarters OF the re-
bellion, there appeared the immortal
Field Force" into which Roberts,
after urgent cntrcaty, had been able to
exchange from the Punjab movable
column.
1t was now that his career of glory
bcgan-a career that was repeatedly al,
but cut short by the bullets, shells and
sabcrs OF the Scpoys. Wherever blows
were rife Lieutenant Roberts was to be
found rejoicing in the rapture of the
fray. He was close to Neville Cham
bcrlain when the lattcr's arm was shat
tered by grape shot; while "a bullet
lodged in the cap pouch Of Roberts,
making severe bruisc close to the
spine, and had it not been for the cap
pouch he must have been killed" But
wounds he soon recovered from, and
cholera he dcfed. When the siege train
at last came tip Roberts got himself at
tachcd to one OF the batteries and was
indciatigablc in directing its fire. He
had several lair-brcadth escapes, but like
Cuts, the "Salamandcr' at the siege OF
Namur, he seemed to bear charmed
life. When the assault was delivered
Roberts had his horse shot.
From the siege OF Delhi young Rob-
crts. still acting as staff officer, passed
with Grcatllcad's movable column to his
own birthplace, blood stained Cawnpore
distinguishing himself repeatedly on
the march In the action OF Bounds
hur he attached himself, though a gun
ncr to the Ninth Lancers, and while
passing through gateway Sepoy
took deliberate aim at him and fired,
but the bullet only killed his charg-
cr On another occasion the troops he
accompanied performed "the almost un-
parallclcd achievement of fighting an
action and marching sixty-six miles in
forty hours, nine miles of which the
cavalry did at trot through high crops
or over plowcd fields"
Receiving at Cawnpore an accession
OF strength from the Nnety-third
Highlanders, the avenging column
started for the relief of Lucknow, on
which Sir Colin Campbell and his High
landcrs were now also convcrging from
Calcutta. The march was terribly toll
some and perilous. II was sent" wrote
Lieut.. Roberts, 'by Sir Hope Grant to
select the ground for new camp.
While we were waiting and talking to
what appeared to be pilgrims we were
shot at, and on looking around saw
considerable number of the enemy be-
tween us and our force. We put spurs