3-028-324 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Sir Randall Roberts, Bart., Captain of the Irish Eight at Wimbledon, 1871. Roberts took part in '...the competition for the Elcho Shield, the international challenge prize between select parties from England, Scotland, and Ireland...[He was] present in the Crimean and the Indian Mutiny wars...During the late war between France and Germany...[he] acted as a special correspondent of the Daily Telegraph...He gained some personal distinction by the gallantry which he showed in battle, whenever he had an opportunity of saving the lives of other men at the risk of his own...After the battle of Bapaume, as he rode through a detachment of the enemy's cavalry, to send his letter to the Daily Telegraph, his boot was shot through..., while his horse was wounded in the side...At St. Quentin, while suffering from a severe contusion, he saved four French soldiers, whom he took out of a burning house...For the manner in which he went through such perilous adventures Sir Randall Roberts has been presented by the Emperor of Germany with the Iron Cross. He appears in the Portrait we have engraved wearing that decoration'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.