Lord Roberts' 81st Birthday.

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 25 September 1914, Page 8

Lord Roberts' 81st Birthday.

I ♦ From far and wide congratulations have been extended to Earl Roberts on his eighty-firat birthday anniversary, the reteran Field-Mar-shal having been born on September 30, 1832. His career is part of the history of the country- The siege of Delhi, the relief of Lucki now, the battle of Cawnpore, and ', the pursuit and defeat of the Gwalior contingent, the engagement at Khudaganj, in which he won the Victoria Cross—these figure among his record of services in the dark days o\ the Indian Mutiny. It was the Afghan War of 1878-81 that stamped Lord Roberts as a military leader of the first rank. His famous telegram when he set out on the march to Kandahar will be recalled to-day. "You need have no fears," he informed the Indian Government, "about ray division. It can take care of itself, and will reach Kandahar under a month." All the world knows how that promise was brilliantly fulfilled to the letter. At an age when most «oldiers have retired from the camp and the field, his lordship undertook the conduct of the South African War, when the nation's anxiety was keen.