A small late 19th century framed oil pastel of Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, VC (1832-1914) by Edith Maas, RA. Initialled in the bottom left hand corner. 

London, circa 1893
 
Dimensions

Height: 17cm / 6¾"
Width: 14cm / 5½"
(The frame is also free standing)

Roberts was born into Anglo-Irish family in India in 1832 and was the son of General Sir Abraham Roberts. Educated at Eton and Sandhurst before entering the East India Company Army as a second lieutenant with the Bengal Artillery in 1851. He became an Aide-de-Camp to his father in 1852, transferred to the Bengal Horse Artillery in 1854 and promoted to lieutenant in 1857. Roberts fought in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and was also present at the siege of Lucknow where he was mentioned in despatches for distinguished service. The following year in 1858 Roberts was awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry at Khudaganj. Roberts was steadily promoted and in 1890 he reached the rank of general and created Baron Roberts in 1892. In 1899 Roberts returned to South Africa with his chief of staff Lord Kitchener to take overall command of British forces in the Second Boer War. While Roberts was in command his son was sadly killed in action in the hills of Natal during the Battle of Colenso. His son was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross. Roberts became one of the great Victorian generals and was regarded as a successful and likeable commander at a time when the British Empire reached the height of its power. He became a symbol of the British army and later warned about the increasing threat that the German Empire posed to Britain in the lead up to the First World War. Roberts died of pneumonia on the 14th November 1914 at St Omer in France while visiting Indian troops fighting in the First World War. After lying in state in Westminster Hall (Roberts and Churchill were the only two people who were not members of the royal family to do so during the 20th century), he was given a state funeral and is buried in St. Paul’s Cathedral.