quartermaster-general of the Expeditionary Force; he filled that appointment most successfully for five months and then, in Jan. 1915, he became chief of the general staff to Sir J. French. In the autumn of that year he was promoted lieutenant-general for distinguished service and in the following Dec. was brought back to the War Office to take up the post of chief of the impe- rial general staff. There he immediately introduced great im- provements in the office organization, and during the first year and a half of his holding the appointment he was successful in keeping the general control of operations on sound lines. While convinced that the western front represented the decisive theatre of war, and fully aware how mischievous was disper- sion of force in principle, he saw to it that, where circumstances unfortunately rendered operations in distant regions unavoid- able, the commanders on the spot were furnished with what was deemed essential to achieve success with the result that the position of affairs in Mesopotamia, on the Suez frontier and in E. Africa was completely transformed within a very few months of his taking up his task. His services were recognized by his being promoted general in 1916 and by his being given the G.C.B. in 1917. He had, however, always experienced some trouble in sufficiently impressing upon the Government that the war could only be won in the west, and in the later months of 1917 he found it more and more difficult, in view of the somewhat dis- appointing results obtained by Allied offensives in France and Flanders, to persuade the War Cabinet that diversion of fight- ing resources to Alexandretta, or to Palestine, or to Macedonia, or to the Austro-Italian frontier, endangered prospects of victory at the decisive point and might lead to disaster near home. His anxieties were increased by the manner in which the problem of man-power was treated. He moreover foresaw that the plan of having a supreme war council composed of military repre- sentatives of the Allies, such as was introduced towards the end of the year, was an unworkable one. Finally in Feb. 1918 he resigned just one month before the success that attended the great German offensive of March proved how correct had been his appreciation of the situation. He was given charge of the eastern command, and three months later he succeeded Lord French as commander-in-chief in Great Britain. On the final distribution of honours for the war he was rewarded with a baronetcy and grant of 10,000, and he was nominated G.C.M.G. From April 1919 to March 1920 he commanded the British troops on the Rhine, and, after relinquishing that appoint- ment on the force being reduced, he was promoted field-marshal. See his autobiographical volume From Private to Field-marshal (1921).
ROBINS, ELIZABETH (1865- ), Anglo-American novelist
and actress, was born at Louisville, Ky., Aug. 6 1865, and educated
at Zanesville, O. She had had her early training as an actress
in America with the Boston Museum stock company, and
afterwards with Edwin Booth. Coming to London she first
appeared in The Real Little Lord Fauntlcroy in 1889, and between
1890 and 1896 she played in most of Ibsen's plays, in which she
established her position on the stage. In 1902 she was Lucrezia
in Stephen PhUlips's Paolo and Francesca at the St. James's
theatre, London. Her first novels, George Mandeville's Husband
(1894), The New Moon (1895) and Below the Salt (1896), appeared
over the pseudonym of C. E. Raimond, but in 1898 the success
of The Open Question led to her publishing in her own name, her
reputation as a writer being maintained in The Magnetic North
(1904); A Dark Lantern (1905); Come and Find Me (1908);
Camilla (1918) and The Messenger (1920). She took an active
part in the agitation for woman suffrage. Her play Votes for
Women was acted at the Court theatre, London, in 1907.
ROBINSON, EDWIN ARLINGTON (1869- ), American
poet, was born at Head Tide, Me., Dec. 22 1869. From the
public schools of Gardiner, Me., he proceeded in 1891 to Har-
vard, but withdrew after two years to take a business position
in New York City. From 1905 to 1910 he was connected with
the N.Y. Customs House, and then returned to Gardiner to
devote his time to literature, and especially to poetry. He
became a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.
His works include The Torrent and the Night After (1896); The Children of the Night (1897); Captain Craig (1902); The Town down the River (1910); Van Zorn (1914, a play); The Porcupine (1915, a play); The Man against the Sky (1916); Merlin (1917); Lancelot (1920); The Three Taverns (1920); Awn's Harvest (1921); Collected Poems (1921).
ROBSON, WILLIAM SNOWDON ROBSON, Baron (1832–1918),
English lawyer and lord of appeal, was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne Sept. 10 1852. He was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, where he took his degree in 1877. In 1880 he was called to the bar and entered politics, sitting as Liberal member for Bow and Bromley from 1885 to 1886, and for South Shields from 1895 to 1910. He earned a reputation as a distinguished and energetic advocate, and became a Q.C. in 1892. In 1905 he was knighted, and became solicitor-general in Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s Government, being made Attorney-General in 1908. In 1910 he
was made a privy councillor, and became a lord of appeal and
life peer. He resigned his office in 1912, and died at Battle,
Sussex, Sept. 11 1918.
ROBY, HENRY JOHN (1830–1915), English scholar (see
23.424), died at Grasmere Jan. 2 1915. He contributed a chapter on Roman law to the second volume of the Cambridge Mediaeval History in 1913.
ROCHEFORT, HENRI (1830–1913), French politician (see 23.426), died at Aix-les-Bains June 30 1913.
ROCKEFELLER, JOHN DAVISON (1839–), American
capitalist (see 23.433), continued after 1910 to live a retired life, and to give great sums for charitable and educational purposes. In 1913 the Rockefeller Foundation was chartered under the laws of the state of New York (Congress having refused to enact the legislation necessary for a national charter) "to promote
the well-being of mankind throughout the world." To this, the most extensive of his benefactions, Rockefeller had given in all $180,000,000 by 1921. The income and $10,000,000 of the original gifts were expended from time to time by its trustees. With increasing definiteness the Rockefeller Foundation focussed its efforts in the fields of medical education and public health. After 1913 it supported by appropriations the International Health Board, an independent organization engaged, in cooperation with governmental agencies, in demonstrations for the control of hookworm disease in 14 southern states of the United States and 22 foreign states or countries; of yellow fever in five South and Central American countries and of malaria in 10 southern states of the United States. In addition, the International Health Board, with funds provided by the Rockefeller Foundation, organized in 1917, partly as a war measure, the Commission for Prevention of Tuberculosis in France; this commission conducted in limited areas, as demonstrations, vigorous campaigns of popular education in hygiene, and provided for the training of French women as health visitors. By the end of 1920 arrangements were under way for the continuation of the work of the Commission by French authorities. In 1914 the Rockefeller Foundation established the China Medical Board to promote the development of scientific medicine and hygiene in China through medical schools, hospitals, and training schools for nurses. In 1919 the Peking Union Medical College, founded by it, was opened together with pre-medical and nurse-training schools. Gifts have been made also to other institutions in China offering pre-medical courses, and to hospitals. In 1920 the Foundation established a Division of Medical Education, through whose advice large pledges of money were made for the development of medical centres in London, and in various cities of Canada. As a part of its public health work, the Rockefeller Foundation also made grants for the support of schools of hygiene at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and at the university of Sao Paulo, Brazil. A special feature of the work was provision for fellowships to persons from many different countries engaged in study in medical education and public health. During the year 1920, 71 fellows from 13 countries (including the United States) were supported. During the World War the Foundation contributed to war work agencies; and before crystallization of its general policy of limiting its work to
