Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/496

 died in infancy. His title devolved by special remainder upon his elder surviving daughter, Lady Aileen Mary Roberts; his second daughter, Lady Ada Edwina Stewart, who is the heir presumptive to the title, married in 1913 Colonel Henry Frederick Elliott Lewin, of the Royal Artillery, and has one son.

A portrait of Roberts by W. W. Ouless was painted for the Royal Artillery in 1882. A bust painting by G. F. Watts, executed in 1898, is in the National Portrait Gallery. A portrait by J. S. Sargent, painted in 1904, is in the possession of Lady Roberts, who owns another by P. A. de Laszló; a second portrait by Laszló is at Eton College. Another portrait, by C. W. Furse, belongs to Lady Hudson. A statue of Roberts by Harry Bates (1894) is in Calcutta; there is a copy in Glasgow, and another, without the pedestal, on the Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall. Busts in bronze by C. W. Roberts and Sir Hamo Thornycroft are both dated 1915, and one by W. R. Colton was exhibited in 1916. There is a bust by John Tweed in St. Paul's Cathedral (Royal Academy Pictures, 1882, 1894, 1915, 1916).

 ROBERTSON, GEORGE SCOTT (1852–1916), Anglo-Indian administrator, was born in London 22 October 1852, the second son of Thomas James Robertson, a pawnbroker in Southwark, by his wife, Robina Corston, daughter of Robert Scott, of Kirkwall, Orkney. He was educated at Westminster Hospital medical school, and entered the Indian medical service in 1878. In the same year he proceeded to India, where he held various appointments as medical officer and served through the Afghan War of 1879–1880 with the Kabul field force.

In 1889 the government of India decided to create a political agency in Gilgit, a district lying within the political sphere of Kashmir, in order to counteract Russian activities. The Russians were about to secure a concession from the state of Hunza, situated sixty miles north of Gilgit, and a Russian cantonment was in process of establishment there, which would have been a real menace to Kashmir and the Indian Empire. Colonel Algernon Durand was appointed British agent in Gilgit, and he chose Robertson, who thus passed into the employment of the Indian foreign department, as his surgeon. A visit with Durand to Chitral led Robertson to interest himself in the Kafirs, the aboriginal inhabitants of that country. He travelled for a year in Kafiristan (1890–1891) and gained the confidence of these primitive people in a marked degree.

On returning to his post Robertson found the political situation in and around Gilgit more satisfactory. Russian interference had been definitely stopped, and the people had accepted the rule of the British agent as representing the government of Kashmir. Moreover, the mehtar, or ruler, of Chitral had a British officer at his court as representative of the government of India, and was pledged to act by his advice in foreign affairs. Durand therefore went home on leave in 1893, and on his recommendation Robertson succeeded him in 1894 as British agent in Gilgit.

The death of the old ruler of Chitral in 1892 had been followed by an orgy of assassination, as is usual in many Oriental countries on a demise of the crown. But when Robertson assumed charge of Gilgit the claimant to Chitral who was most favoured by Simla had, after the usual struggles, been accepted as mehtar by the people. Peace was rudely broken, however, in January 1895 when the mehtar was murdered by his younger brother in Chitral itself. Had this been the murderer's irresponsible act the matter might have been peacefully settled, but more powerful influences were concerned. Umra Khan, a Pathan chief, was in control of Dir and Swat, territories which lie between Chitral and Peshawar. His aim was to extend his power over Chitral to the Oxus. The mehtar's murder afforded him a convenient excuse for interference by urging the claims of Sher Afzal (the dead mehtar's uncle) to the vacant throne. His action was approved and controlled by the Ameer of Kabul who had long coveted Chitral.

Robertson, therefore, proceeded to Chitral with an escort. At the same time Umra Khan entered that country from the south with Sher Afzal and a considerable force. Robertson handled the situation with firmness. He recognized as ruler of Chitral neither the late mehtar's murderer nor Sher Afzal, whose claims were supported by Umra Khan's invading force. The youngest legitimate male survivor of the ruling family was proclaimed mehtar, whereupon war was at once  470