OTIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 231, 29 September 1928, Page 8

OTIS WEEK'S GREAT DAY.

SEPT. OF LORD

ROBERTS.

(Copyrighted.)

Ninety-six years ago, on September 30, 1832, Frederick Sleigh Roberts, who was destined to become the most» illustrious and popular soldier of the. Victorian era, was born at Cawnpore in India, where his father, General Sir Abraham Roberts, was at that time stationed in command of the garrison.

He was educated in England at Eton and Sandhurst Colleges, and when he entered the army at the age of nineteen he was immediately dispatched to India, where he served continuously for a period of forty-one years, except for a few brief furloughs,

On the outbreak of the great native mutiny in 1857 he was first attached to the flying column iu the Punjab under the command of the heroic John Nicholson, and he afterwards took part in the ever-memorable fights at Delhi, Cawnpore and Lucknow. He gained the Victoria Cross on January 2, 1858, for his gallantry during an engagement at Khudaganj, where he saved the life of a native trooper and captured one of the rebel standards.

■For the next two years his life story is the history of the many small wars which raged almost continuously in India and across its frontiers. His great valour and ability as an organiser and strategist gained for him repeated advancement and honours, which culminated in his appointment in 1885 as Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, a post which he held for seven years. He superintended the arrangement of the two magnificent durbars which were held at Delhi, the first on the occasion of the'visit of the Prince of Wales to India in 187G, and the second when Queeu Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in the following year. The most brilliant exploit in his long and eventful career took place during the campaign in Afghanistan in 1880, when his wonderful march from Kabul to Kandahar gained forvhim the thanks of both Houses of Parliament and a At the conclusion of his fortyone years of Indian service he was rewarded with a peerage, and in 1895 he was made a Privy Councillor and given the command of the army in Ireland. '

Soon after the series of disasters whidh marked the early stages of the South African War in 1899 he was sent out to South Africa, where his wonderful mastery of military strategy enabled him to speedily change the aspect of a "airs. By the end of 1900 he was able to return to England, having liiexed the two Dutch Republics and scattered their armies beyond all hope of any further organised action, and left the final crushing of the numerous guerilla leaders in the capable hands of Lord Kitchener. On his arrival Home he was made a Knight of the Garter and appointed Com-mander-in-Chief of the British Army, which post he held until 1905, when he retired after fifty-five years of strenuous service.

~^ le prand old veteran, then in his seventythird year, gave up his well-earned leisure to preach the gospel of preparedness, and had his warnings been heeded by the British Government many of the disasters in the late Great War would have been averted. In November, 1914, he went over to France to visit the native troops of the Indian army who were then at the front, and there he passed away suddenly on the 14th of the month, dying, as he would have wished, in the midst of the sons and grandsons of the dusky warriors who had served him in the Far East.