Aileen Roberts, 2nd Countess Roberts

Aileen Mary Roberts, 2nd Countess Roberts of Kandahar, Waterford and Pretoria, DBE (20 September 1870 – 9 October 1944), was one of the six children of Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, V.C., and Nora Henrietta (née Bews). She succeeded to the titles of Viscountess St. Pierre and Countess Roberts on 14 November 1914.^[1]

As Earl Roberts' sons had predeceased him, the Earldom was allowed to pass down the female line. Aileen became the 2nd Countess Roberts in 1914. She was invested as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)^[2] in 1918 for her services as Honorary Secretary, Officers' Families Fund and founder of the Countess Roberts Field Glass Fund.^[3]

She died in 1944, unmarried, at the age of 74. She was succeeded as 3rd Countess Roberts by her younger sister, Ada Edwina Stewart Roberts ^[4] (28 March 1875 – 21 February 1955), who married Major Henry Lewin (1872–1946), who, by 1917, attained the rank of brigadier-general and the Légion d'honneur. The 3rd Countess, like her father before her, would live to see the death of her own son, and only child, Lieutenant Frederick Roberts Alexander Lewin (18 January 1915 – May 1940), who was killed in action during World War II in 1940.^[5]

Sources

• L.G. Pine, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms (London, UK: Heraldry Today, 1972), p. 233.

References

External links

• Chest of Books website
• New York Times report on the death of Earl Roberts
• Anglo-Afghan War website