Family :

Education & Career :

Educated at Cheltenham College and Sandhurst.

Service Life:

Campaigns:

• The First World War 1914-1918, World-wide.

The Gallipoli Campaign was fought on the Gallipoli peninsula 25th April 1915 to 9th January 1916. in a failed attempt to defeat Turkey by seizing the Dardanelles and capturing Istanbul. Ill-conceived and planned, the initial effort by the Royal Navy failed to force passage through the Dardanelles by sea power alone. It was then realised that a land force was needed to support the project by suppressing the Turkish mobile artillery batteries. By the time all was ready the Turks were well aware and well prepared. Despite amazing heroics on the day of the landings only minor beachheads were achieved and over the succeeding 8 months little progress was made. Eventually the beachheads were evacuated in a series of successful ruses.

Despite Gallipoli rightly becoming a national source of pride to Australians and New Zealanders, far more British casualties were sustained, and these days the substantial French contribution is almost forgotten.

Detail :

ROBERTS Archibald Major (Retired) ? Indian Army. Day Boy 1889-1895. Takht-i-Sulinan Lodge No: 3043. Proposed by W.Bro C.C.W.Troughton. Seconded by Bro D.C.Lee. Joined 6th February 1912. Killed in Action August 1915. http://www.ww1-yorkshires.org.uk/pdf-files/officers-died-ww1(coulson).pdf Major Archibald Roberts ? 6th Battalion. Archibald Roberts was born into a military family, his father having served in India. He was educated at Cheltenham College followed by the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. Major Roberts was serving with the 6th battalion at the outbreak of war and on July 3rd 1915 sailed with them from Liverpool bound for the Dardenelles. The battalion arrived on the island of Lemnos on July 10th and ten days later moved to Imbros for training and acclimatisation. On August 6th an officers conference was called and Major Roberts as second in command of the battalion formalised the plans for the landing on the Gallipoli peninsula the following day. In the darkness of the early hours of August 7th 1915 the battalion were towed ashore to land at Suvla Bay close to the Salt Lake. The battalion assembled on the beach and then marched of to the foot of the hill known as Lala Baba. The battalion then charged up the hill towards the Turkish lines with the call of ?The Yorkshires are coming?. Bitter fighting went on all day but by midnight they were able to report that the hill was taken. Major Archibald Roberts was wounded in this attack and taken by hospital ship to Malta for treatment where he died of his wounds on August 22nd 1915 aged 47. His grave today lies in Pieta Military Cemetery on the island of Malta. Major Roberts was the son of Major A H Roberts of the Madras Artillery and the husband of M Ferguson formerly Roberts of The Beeches, Cirencester in Gloucestershire. His name is also remembered on Cheltenham War Memorial and on Cheltenham College Roll of Honour.

Masonic :

Archibald joined the English Constitution from Lodge 828 of the Scottish Constitution on the 14th December, 1910. He initially joined Takht-i-Suliman Lodge No. 3043 at Kashmir on that date. This Lodge became Lodge No. 65 under the Grand Lodge of India on 24th November, 1961.

He further joined Old Cheltonian Lodge No. 3223 on 6th February, 1912. He is recorded as a Major, with the contribution register showing that he was "Killed in Action Augt 1915."

Source :

The project globally acknowledges the following as sources of information for research across the whole database:

• The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• The (UK) National Archives
• Ancestry.co.uk - Genealogy, Family Trees & Family History online
• ugle.org.uk - The records of the United Grand Lodge of England including the Library and Museum of Freemasonry

Additional Source:

• Founder Researchers : Paul Masters & Mike McCarthy
• Researcher : Bruce Littley