Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts

He served in the Indian rebellion, the Expedition to Abyssinia and the Second Anglo-Afghan War before leading British Forces to success in the Second Boer War. He also became the last Commander-in-Chief of the Forces before the post was abolished in 1904.

Roberts was awarded the Victoria Cross for actions on 2 January 1858 at Khudaganj. The citation reads:

"Lieutenant Roberts' gallantry has on every occasion been most marked".[3]

In an important speech in Manchester on 22 October 1912 Roberts warned of the threat posed by Germany:

In the year 1912, just as in 1866 and just as in 1870, war will take place the instant the German forces by land and sea are, by their superiority at every point, as certain of victory as anything in human calculation can be made certain...We may stand still. Germany always advances and the direction of her advance, the line along which she is moving, is now most manifest. It is towards...complete supremacy by land and sea.[4]

He claimed that Germany was making enormous efforts to prepare for war and ended his speech by saying:

Gentlemen, I say, “Arm and prepare to acquit yourselves like men, for the day of your ordeal is at hand”.[4]

This speech was much criticised in the liberal and radical press, such as the Manchester Guardian. Much later, a historian said: "At this distance of time the verdict upon Lord Robert's Manchester speech must be that, in speaking out clearly on the probability of war, he was doing a patriotic service comparable to Churchill's during the Thirties".[5]

Roberts died on November 14, 1914. He died of pneumonia. He got sick when he was visiting British troops.[6] Few non-royal people in four centuries have been given a State Funeral in the United Kingdom. Roberts was one of them.

Robert's son, Frederick Hugh Sherston Roberts, died in 1899 in the second Boar War, and received the VC. They were one of only three father and son pairs to receive the Victoria Cross.[7]