His memoir follows military service from a junior officer’s duties to the responsibilities of command.
Explore the life and work
The course of a life
Roberts entered the Bengal Artillery in 1851. He won the Victoria Cross for gallantry at Khudaganj during the Indian Mutiny, commanded the Kuram and Kabul field forces during the Second Afghan War and became famous for the march from Kabul to Kandahar in 1880.
Roberts served as Commander-in-Chief in India from 1885 to 1893 and became Field Marshal in 1895. His later career included supreme command in South Africa and service as the final Commander-in-Chief of the Forces. He died in France in November 1914 while visiting Indian troops serving on the Western Front.
The literary work
Forty-One Years in India is the commander’s account of his own service. The two volumes move from the campaigns of 1857–58 to Afghanistan and the higher commands in India.
The legacy
The memoir preserves a soldier’s view of the institutions, campaigns and decisions that shaped his career.
