John Hamilton Roberts

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

John Hamilton "Ham" Roberts (December 21, 1891 – 1962) was a Canadian artillery officer and major general.

Roberts was born in Pipestone, Manitoba. He studied in Upper Canada College and graduated from from the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.

In the World War II Roberts was stationed in Northern France, when the Germans started their assault on May 1940. Roberts succeeded to save his regiment's guns while evacuating over the English Channel in Dunkirk.

Roberts was put in charge of the ground troops for the raid against Dieppe, on August 19, 1942. His command post was aboard HMS Calpe and due to poor communications he had no idea how his troops were managing, until they called for landing crafts for immediate evacuation. Roberts, who had no part in planning the operation, was not blamed but received no further operational commands during the war.