The statue sits in the south east corner of Horse Guards Parade and is one of several memorials in the area. The plinth is made from white Portland stone and has a simple inscription, on the front, that reads "Roberts".
The statue, made from bronze, is life-size and shows Roberts reigning back his horse. Roberts is in military uniform and has a sword hanging from his left hip.
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Initially the proposal from Earl Haig was that John Tweed be appointed as sculptor, but it was Robert’s daughter who brought attention to the statue of Roberts in Calcutta, advising that a replica had been successfully made for Glasgow. She explained that the Calcutta sculpture had been done from life, and also made the point that the little grey arab in the Calcutta statue was the horse which Lord Roberts had ridden for many years.
In August 1920 Earl Haig writes that he is in a favour of a replica of the Calcutta statue.
On 1st November 1920, the committee agreed that the statue should be a replica of the Calcutta statue but slightly reduced in size in order not to clash with the Wolseley statue - also in Horse Guards Parade. It was agreed that the commission should go to Mrs Bates who held the copyright. An agreement was drawn up with Mrs Bates on the 12th December, 1921.
On 9th May 1924 the statue was unveiled by Field Marshal, the Duke of Connaught, but in the intervening period there are numerous exchanges concerning the amount which should be paid to Mrs Bates and Henry Poole. The amount claimed was in dispute and it is interesting to note that the committee asked John Goscombe for his opinion. Finally a figure was agreed by Poole on behalf of Mrs Bates. The amount was £3,800.which was paid in installments
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Lord Roberts commanded the British forces in Afghanistan during Baden-Powell's service in 1881-1882. He was later to become the Commander-in-Chief in India (1885-1893), in the South African War (1899-1902) and, finally Commander-in-Chief of the British Army (1901-1904). For much of Baden-Powell's active military service, Lord Roberts was among the highest ranking and most respected officers of the British Army. He became known as "Kipling's General."
His life was jewelled and upheld by those ideals the poet himself sought to glorify - courage, faith and honour. But ... to Kipling's Tommy Atkins he was just "Bobs," a well-loved commander who had been with them since most of them were recruits, a shrewd tactician, yet careful of his men's lives and solicitous of their welfare. Nothing endears a leader to his men more than sparing them needless hardship, and for this reason his men would follow Bobs through all necessary perils, partly for their belief in him, and partly to see that no harm befell him.
Bobs served for a total of forty-one years in India, at a time when the Indian Army was both unfashionable and unadvantageous. In those years he rose from Horse Artillery subaltern to Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army. He served with distinction in the Indian Mutiny, winning the V.C. for repeated acts of heroism, but he will chiefly be remembered as the man who curbed the unruly spirit of the treacherous Afghans, wiping out the memory of British defeats and bringing peace to the North-West Frontier. His march from Kabul to Kandahar will long be cited as a remarkable feat of both strategy and administration.
Beset by Sir Garnet Wolesley's jealousy of all Indian officers, though the Indian Command was by far the most enlightened and experienced, Bobs still succeeded in rising, being first C-in-C Ireland, Bobs himself was an Irishman, and finally, the last C-in-C of the whole army before the post was abolished. Sent to reprieve the disasters of the early stages of the Boer War, his energy and decision saved the situation and caused the Boers never to take the field again as an organised army.
Characteristically, Bobs died while visiting his beloved soldiers on the Western Front in 1914, and thus passed into history a man of tact and understanding, dignity and firmness of purpose, courage and honour - Kipling's "Father Bobs."
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