Author: Roberts, David
Biography:
ROBERTS, David (1757-1819: ODNB)
The poet and his brothers, Thomas (1748-1823) and William, were military men. According to a biographer of the poet’s niece Emma Roberts (q.v.), their father was David Roberts of London, high sheriff of Denbighshire in 1799, from 1780 owner of Kinmel estate in the counties of Denbigh and Flint. The poet was a decorated soldier, recipient of the cross of the Royal Sardinian Order of St Maurize and Lazare, knight of the order of merit of St Anne of Holstein. He saw battle at Salamanca, Talavera, and Vitoria. In 1798 he published Military Instructions; in 1800 Treatise on Regimental Courts-Martial; in 1810 A Plan for Increasing the Incomes of the Officers of the Army; and in 1812 A Letter to the Officers in the Army (2nd edn 1813). Early in his career, he served in the 22nd dragoons and the 1st life guards. Promoted captain in 1799, he was on half pay from 1801. On 25 Feb. 1804 he joined the 51st foot. In Portugal in 1808, he was promoted brigade-major under General Leith during Moore’s retreat to La Coruña. Wounded in the battle of Lugo in Jan. 1809, he had much of his right arm amputated. He was appointed brevet major on 4 June 1811, major on 12 Dec. Having been in temporary command of a regiment at the battle of Vittoria, he received a gold medal and was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel. He was shot in the back at Vera during Napoleon’s last offensive in Spain. The musket-bullet, never extracted, permanently incapacitated him and caused him to retire, 22 June 1815, on a £500 pension. That same year, he published The Military Adventures of Johnny Newcome, 3,000 lines of burlesque verse with fifteen hand-coloured, copperplate engravings by Rowlandson. A reviewer called it “of little merit,” but it was sufficiently popular for a second, 1816, edition. Several days before his death, he completed a second installment, published 1822 as My Cousin in the Army (2nd edn 1825), with illustrations by Cruickshank and Williams. He died age 63 in Mar. 1819 (not Apr. as elsewhere) at Le Havre-de-Grâce, Normandy. His will was probated on 2 Apr. His wife (possibly his second wife), Eliza, predeceased him. He had a son, Henry, and a daughter, Julia Eliza. (ODNB; PROB 11/1615; Scots Magazine [1 June 1820], 106; GM [1810], 490) JC