against them at Khudaganj (2 January 1858) and Kursi
(22 March 1858). He was struck with a sickness, and
was sent back to England, where he received the Vic-
toria Cross for his bravery at Khudaganj. He served in
staff appointments for the next 22 years, playing a vital
part in the logistical support of campaigns in Africa and
India. In December 1863, he fought in the “Ambela”
campaign north of Peshawar, India, under Major Gen-
eral John Garvock.
In 1867, Roberts was appointed assistant quar-
termaster general in Abyssinia (now Ethiopia) to Sir
Donald Stewart’s brigade. He saw limited action dur-
ing his four months’ tour in 1868, returning to India
later that year. Afghanistan was then, as now, an un-
stable land, and this was proven in the Second Afghan
War (1878–80) when Roberts, now a major general and
the commander of British forces, invaded Afghanistan
from India. His Frontier Field Force set out to repair the
defeat of Sir Neville Bowles Chamberlain’s army in Af-
ghanistan in early 1878. Through a series of battles with
the Afghans, including at Spingawi Kotal (2 December
1878) and Hagir Pir (January 1879), he advanced on
the city of Kabul, taking it with few losses on 6 October
- Although much of the enemy had been routed,
Muslim fanatics threatened Roberts and the British mis-
sion, and he moved out from Kabul to attack them. He
defeated them outside Kabul, but, with the British mis-
sion at Sherpur threatened, he moved his forces there
and consolidated the mission’s defenses. The Muslim
army attacked on 23 December 1879 with forces of up-
ward of 100,000 men, but Roberts and the British beat
them back, with horrific losses to the Muslims. Roberts
then moved his army out of the city, attacked them with
great force, and defeated them again.
Roberts recommended that Afghanistan be divided
into several regions, and, on 5 May 1880, Sir Donald
Stewart’s army arrived in Kabul from Kandahar (now
Qandahar). On 22 July 1880, under Roberts’s com-
mand, Abdur Rahman was named as the new amir of
Kabul. As Roberts planned to march his army out of
Afghanistan back into India, he received word that a
British force had been defeated by the Muslims at Mai-
wand (27 July 1880) and that British troops under
Lieutenant General James Primrose were under siege in
Kandahar. He departed Kabul with an army of 10,000
soldiers on 9 August and arrived at Kandahar on 31
August, a march of some 310 miles in 22 days. On 1
September, this force took on the besieging Muslim
forces, defeating them and relieving Primrose’s army.
This victory ended the war. Awarded the honor of a
baronetcy and Knight Commander of the Order of the
Bath (KCB), Roberts sailed home to England for a pe-
riod of rest before assuming command of the Madras
army in India.
While Roberts was in England, however, the British
army was defeated at Majuba Hill in South Africa (27
February 1881). Immediately, the British government
transferred Roberts from India to South Africa, mak-
ing him governor of Natal Province and commander
in chief of British forces in southern Africa. He sailed
to Africa, but when he arrived he learned that peace
had been gained between the Boers and the English.
He went back to England, declined the post of quarter-
master general, and returned to India. In July 1885, he
succeeded Sir Donald Stewart as commander in chief
of British forces in India, a post he held for seven years.
In 1886, he took personal command of the forces of
Burma in a campaign there. In 1892, for his service to
the Crown, he was styled as Baron Roberts of Kandahar
and Waterford. He departed India for the last time in
1893 and was promoted to the rank of field marshal in- That same year, he published The Rise of Welling-
ton, and in 1895 he published his memoirs, Forty-One
Years in India.
In 1899, the Boer War broke out in southern Af-
rica, and after British defeats at Magersfontein and Co-
lenso, where his son was killed, Roberts was given the
command of British forces there. He arrived in Cape
Town (now in South Africa) on 10 January 1900, and
he quickly established a strategy of relieving British
forces under siege in the cities of Kimberley and La-
dysmith. He concentrated on defeating the main Boer
force under the South African commander Piet Cronje,
meeting his army at Paardeberg on 27 February 1900
and forcing Cronje’s surrender and that of some 5,000
Boer troops on what was the 19th anniversary of the
Boer victory at Majuba Hill. Roberts took Bloemfon-
tein on 13 March 1900 and moved on the capital of
Pretoria. After relieving the siege of Mafeking (17 May
1900), he took Pretoria with little bloodshed on 5 June
With much of South Africa now under British
control, Roberts stepped down as commander in chief
and sailed back to England; he was succeeded by Lord
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