While Roberts was at Simla, news arrived on Sept. 5 of the mur der of Cavagnari and his companions at Kabul. The Peshawar Valley Force had been broken up; Sir Donald Stewart was still at Kandahar, but most of his troops had started for India ; Roberts, therefore, had the only force ready to strike rapidly at Kabul. It was hastily reinforced, and he hurried back to Kurram to take command, as a lieutenant-general, of the Kabul Field Force (7,500 men and 22 guns). By Sept. 19, a brigade was entrenched on the Shutargardan, and as Roberts advanced, the Amir Yakub Khan came into his camp. An Afghan force of 8,000 men blocked the way in a strong position on the heights beyond Charasia, and on Oct. 6, Roberts repeated the tactics that had done him such good service at the Peiwar in the previous year, and sending Brigadier General T. D. Baker with the greater part of his force to turn the Afghan right flank, threatened the pass in front with the remainder. By the afternoon Baker had seized the position, and the enemy, severely defeated, were in full retreat. Kabul was occupied without further opposition.
The city was spared, but punishment was meted out to those convicted of complicity in the murder of the British Mission.
Yakub Khan abdicated on Oct. 12, and was eventually deported to India. The troops occupied the Sherpur cantonments ; but in November a religious war was proclaimed by the Mullahs, and early in December, in order to prevent a threatening combination of Afghan tribes against him, Roberts moved out two columns to attack them in detail. After considerable fighting near Kabul, the numbers of the enemy became so great that he was forced to con centrate his troops again at Sherpur, the defences of which had been greatly improved and strengthened. Sherpur was invested by the enemy, and early on Dec. 23, was attacked by over 1 oo,000 Afghans. They were driven off with great loss; and on making a second attempt to storm the place, were met by Roberts, who moved out, attacked them in flank, and defeated them.
Roberts now recommended the political dismemberment of Afghanistan, and negotiations were carried on with the northern tribes for the appointment of an amir for the Kabul district only. On May 5, Sir Donald Stewart arrived with his column from Kan dahar and assumed the supreme command in Afghanistan, Roberts retaining, under Stewart, the command of the two Kabul divisions, and organizing an efficient transport corps under Colonel R. Low, which was soon to be of inestimable value. On July 22, Abdur Rahman was proclaimed Amir of Kabul; and Roberts was pre paring to withdraw his troops to India by the Kurram route, when news arrived that a British brigade had been totally defeated at Maiwand on July 27, and that Lieutenant-General Primrose was besieged in Kandahar. Roberts was ordered to proceed thither at once with a specially selected column of 1 o,000 troops and his new transport corps. He started on his famous march on Aug. 9, and arrived at Kandahar on the morning of the 31st, having covered 313 miles in twenty-two days. On the following day he fought the battle of Kandahar and gained a complete victory. Roberts was now created K.C.B., G.C.B. and a baronet, and was given the command of the Madras army.
Before proceeding to Madras, Roberts went home on furlough, and when the news of the disaster at Majuba Hill in South Africa arrived in London at the end of February 1881, he was appointed governor of Natal and commander-in-chief in South Africa. He arrived at Cape Town to find that peace had been made with the Boers, and that instructions were awaiting him to return home. The same year he attended the autumn ma noeuvres in Hanover as the guest of the German emperor. He
declined the post of quartermaster-general to the forces in suc cession to Sir Garnet Wolseley, and returned to India, arriving at Madras in November. The following year he visited Burma with the viceroy, and in 1885 attended the meeting between Abdur Rahman and Lord Dufferin at Rawalpindi at the time of the Panjdeh incident, in connection with which he had been nominated to the command of an army corps in case of hostilities. In July he succeeded Sir Donald Stewart as commander-in-chief in India, and during his seven years' tenure of this high position instituted many measures for the benefit of the army, and greatly assisted the development of frontier communications and defence. At the end of 1886, at the request of the viceroy, he took personal command for a time of the forces in Burma, and organized measures for the suppression of dacoity. In 1892 he was created Baron Roberts of Kandahar and Waterford. In 1893 he left India for good, and the G.C.S.I. was bestowed upon him. He was promoted to be field-marshal in 1895, and in the autumn of that year succeeded Lord Wolseley in the Irish command and was sworn a privy councillor.
After the disastrous actions in the Boer war in South Africa in December 1899 at Magersfontein, Stormberg and Colenso, where his only son was killed, Lord Roberts was sent out as com mander-in-chief. He arrived at Cape Town on Jan. 1 o, 1900, and after organizing his force, advanced with sound strategy on Bloemfontein, the capital of the Orange Free State, and soon changed the aspect of affairs. The sieges of Kimberley and Lady smith were raised, and the Boer general, Cronje, flying towards the capital, was overtaken at Paardeberg and, after a fine defence, compelled to surrender, with 5,000 men, on the anniversary of Majuba Day, Feb. 27, 1900. Roberts entered Bloemfontein on March 13, and after six weeks' preparation, advanced on Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal. Mafeking was relieved on May 17, and Pretoria occupied on June 5. The two Boer states were annexed, and the war gradually assuming a guerrilla character, Roberts handed over the command to Lord Kitchener and re turned to England to fill the office of commander-in-chief of the army in succession to Lord Wolseley.
On his return in 1901 he received an earldom, the thanks of both Houses of Parliament and a grant of oo,000 for his serv ices in South Africa. In 1905 he resigned his post on the Com mittee of National Defence, and devoted himself to attempting to rouse his countrymen to the necessity of cultivating rifle-shooting and of adopting systematic general military training and service.
As head of the National Service League, he took part in the movement in favour of compulsory military service for home defence and published in 1911, Fallacies and Facts, in support of his views. On the outbreak of the World War he was a frequent visitor at the War Office, and shortly after the arrival of the two Indian divisions in France he crossed the Channel to visit them in the trenches. He was attacked by pneumonia while at the front, and he died at St. Omer on Nov. 14, 1914, the title going by special remainder to his elder daughter, Aileen Mary. He was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral, London.
Earl Roberts was the author of the following works: The Rise of Wellington (1895) ; Forty-one years in India (1897) ; Letters written during the Indian Mutiny (1924). See also H. Hensonan, The Afghan War of 1879-188o (1881) ; The Anglo-Afghan War (official account, 1880 ; Sir T. F. Maurice and M. H. Grant (Official), History of the War in South Africa 189g-19o2 (1906-191o) ; Sir G. W. Forrest, The Life of Lord Roberts (1914).