The Spectator at war: Profound respect and sorrow

From The Spectator, 21 November 1914:

WE record with deep regret the death of Lord Roberts, which occurred last Saturday evening at Sir John French’s headquarters. Lord Roberts had gone to France specially to visit the Indian troops, of whom he was Colonel-in-Chief. He caught cold on Thursday week, and his heart was not strong enough to resist the attack of pneumonia -which followed. We have written elsewhere of Lord Roberts’s brilliant career, and of his great example not only as a soldier but as a man. We may add here that the Times of Monday published a letter in which M. Gaston Dru, a French correspondent, stated that, in conversation with him on Tuesday week, Lord Roberts expressed regret that more publicity and public credit were not given to the heroic endurance and gallantry of our men abroad. He thought that more might be allowed to be said in the newspapers without injury to our military plans.

The funeral of Lord Roberts took place on Thursday, when he was buried in the crypt of St. Paul’s Cathedral, near the tombs of Nelson and Wolseley. The body was brought from his home at Ascot to Charing Cross, and thence the procession moved to the Cathedral by the Embankment. The coffin was covered with a Union Jack, on which were placed the Field-Marshal’s sword, hat, and insignia. Behind the coffin came his charger. There were enormous crowds in the streets, who showed every sign of profound respect and sorrow. The very moving service was conducted, in the presence of the King and many distinguished men and women, by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London. At the end of the service Garter King-at-Arms proclaimed Lord Roberts’s style and titles, and the “Last Post” was sounded from a gallery by Artillery trumpeters. A strange fact, generally noticed, was the enormous preponderance of civilians over soldiers in the Cathedral. The soldiers who would have wished to pay their last respects to a beloved leader were, of course, where that leader would have wished them to be—at their duties at home and abroad.