ROBERTS, FREDERICK SLEIGH ROBERTS, EARL (1832-1914), British soldier, second son of General Sir Abraham Roberts, G.C.B., was born at Cawnpore, India, on Sept. 3o, 1832. Educated at Eton, Sandhurst and Addiscombe, he obtained a commission in the Bengal Artillery on Dec. 12, 1851. In the follow ing year he was posted to a field battery at Peshawar, where he also acted as aide-de-camp to his father, who commanded the Peshawar division. In 1856 Roberts was appointed to the quarter master-general's department of the staff, in which he remained for 22 years, passing from one grade to another until he became quartermaster-general in India. On the outbreak of the Mutiny in 1857, Roberts, at first, was staff officer to the movable column operating against the mutineers in the Punjab, but, towards the end of June, he joined the Delhi Field Force, and was deputy assistant quartermaster-general with the artillery during the opera tions against Delhi. He served under Sir Colin Campbell at the second relief of Lucknow in November, at the battle of Cawnpore on Dec. 6 and the subsequent pursuit and defeat of the Gwalior contingent near Shinrajpur.
Roberts distinguished himself at the engagement of Khudaganj, on Jan. 2, 1858, and he was recommended for the Victoria Cross for acts of gallantry there. He was present at the reoccupation of Fatehgarh on Jan. 6, the storm of Mianganj in February, the siege and capture of Lucknow in March, and the action at Kursi on the 22nd of that month, after which he went home on sick leave. For his services in the Mutiny he was seven times mentioned in des patches, received the medal with three clasps, the Victoria Cross, and on his promotion to captain, in Oct. 186o, a brevet majority. On May 17, 1859 he married, at Waterford, Miss Nora Bews, and on his return to India was entrusted with the organization of the viceroy's camps during the progresses through Oudh, the North-West Provinces, the Punjab and Central India in 186o and 1861. In Dec. 1863 he took part, under Major-General Garvock, in the Umbeyla campaign among the mountains to the north of Peshawar, and was present at the storm of Lalu, the capture of Umbeyla and the destruction of Mulka.
In 1867 Roberts was appointed assistant quartermaster-general to Sir Donald Stewart's Bengal Brigade for Abyssinia. He showed judgment in embarking each unit complete in every detail, instead of despatching camp equipage in one ship, transport in another, and so on, as was customary. He arrived at Zula Annesley Bay, in the Red Sea, the base of the expedition, on Feb. 3, 1868, and remained there as senior base staff officer during the four months' campaign. At its close he superintended the re-embarkation of the whole army. He returned to India the following year as first assistant quartermaster-general. In the autumn of 1871 he made the arrangements for the expedition into Lushai, between south east Bengal and Burma, fitted out two columns under Brigadier Generals Bourchier and Brownlow, and himself accompanied the first. A road, over zoo m. long, was cut through dense gloomy
forests in stifling heat, and the column was attacked by cholera; but the object of the expedition was successfully accomplished, and Roberts, who was present at the capture of the Kholel villages and the action in the Northlang range, and commanded the troops at the burning of Taikum, was mentioned in despatches and made a Companion of the Bath. On his return in March 1872, he became deputy quartermaster-general in Bengal, and in 1875 quarter master-general and colonel. He settled the details of the great camp of exercise at Delhi on the occasion of the visit of the prince of Wales in January 1876, and attended H.R.H. at the manoeuvres. He also superintended the arrangements for the great durbar at Delhi on Jan. 1, 1877, when Queen Victoria was proclaimed empress of India.
In 1878 Roberts was appointed to the command of the Frontier Field Force at Abbottabad, in Hazara ; but in the autumn, on the repulse of the Chamberlain Mission by the Afghans, and the for mation of three columns to advance into Afghanistan by the Khyber, the Bolan and the Kurram passes, he was given the com mand of the Kurram Field Force, with the rank of major-general. Concentrating his column at Thal, he advanced to Kurram towards the end of November, and having formed an advanced base there, moved on to Habib Kila. Under cover of preparations for a front attack on the Peiwar Kotal, he reconnoitred that formidable posi tion, and on the night of Dec. I, moved part of his force to attack the Spingawi Kotal, in order to turn the Afghan left flank, leaving the remainder of the force to feign a front attack on the Peiwar, and to guard the camp. After a very difficult night march the Spingawi Kotal was carried at daybreak on the 2nd, and, later, the Afghans on the Peiwar Kotal, threatened in rear, abandoned the position. The next morning Roberts occupied the Peiwar, and on the 6th advanced to Ali Khel. He reconnoitred the Shutargardan and the Sapari passes, and made a strong reconnaissance through Khost, in which some fighting took place, and at the end of January returned to Hagir Pir, in Kurram, where his force remained in occupation. In July Major Cavagnari, the British envoy to the new amir, Yakub Khan, passed through Kurram on his way to Kabul, and, shortly afterwards, Roberts left his Kurram command and went to Simla to take his seat on the army commission, where he strongly advocated the abolition of the three Presidency armies, and the substitution for them of four army corps, a measure which was carried out sixteen years later.