Major General Horatio Gordon Robley (28 June 1840 – 29 October 1930) was a British soldier who fought in colonial wars in New Zealand, Mauritius, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

The numerous sketches made during this period formed the basis for his illustrations some years later, when he was asked by the firm Cassells & Co. to contribute to their publication, Races of Mankind.

Robley returned home to England on sick leave between September 1860 and March 1861,[3] where he began to specialise in rifle shooting, applying for and being granted a term in the School of Musketry.

Rejoining his regiment in the East Indies in 1861, some years after the Indian Mutiny, he was assigned command of the guard placed over the last Mughal emperor, Bahadur Shah II, during his exile in Rangoon through to death in 1862.

British forces suffered a humiliating defeat in the Battle of Gate Pā on 29 April 1864, with 31 killed and 80 wounded despite vastly outnumbering their Māori foe.

[citation needed] His regiment was withdrawn from Tauranga early in 1866 and sailed from Auckland arriving back in Spithead, England, on 28 June 1866.

[12] The battalion served in Ceylon from 1885 to 1888[13] In 1887, Robley retired from the army with the honorary rank of Major General[14] and returned to live in London.

Later, with the exception of the five best examples which Robley retained, the collection was purchased by the American Museum of Natural History, New York, for the equivalent of £1,250.