After a military career which took him from India to the Netherlands, in 1810 in the Napoleonic Peninsular War he was given command of the Light Division, composed of the elite foot soldiers in the army at the time, under the Duke of Wellington.

Craufurd was a strict disciplinarian and somewhat prone to violent mood swings which earned him the nickname "Black Bob".

He spent some time at Berlin in 1782, studying the tactics of the army of Frederick the Great and translated into English the official Prussian treatise on the Art of War.

Together with his brother Charles, he attended King Frederick the Great's review of the troops at Potsdam by personal invitation.

A year later, due to his German language skills, he was British commissioner on Suvorov's staff when Russia invaded Switzerland.

Robert married on 7 February 1800 at St Saviour's Church, Mary Frances, daughter of Henry Holland, Esquire of Hans Place, Chelsea, and granddaughter of the landscape designer Lancelot "Capability" Brown.

He was very fond of his wife, and, to the exasperation of his general officer commanding, regularly requested 'furlough' home to see his young love.

[citation needed] Craufurd departed from Falmouth docks on 12 November 1806, sailing south to the Cape of Good Hope with instructions from William Windham.

General Samuel Auchmuty and Admiral Murray were despatched to report back to the Pitt ministry, who wanted the capture of Buenos Aires.

[4][5] A total of 1,070 officers and men were killed or severely wounded; Craufurd and Coadjutor Edmund Pack of Royal Horse Guards were incensed.

Moore was fearful that the army could be overwhelmed by much superior forces and their line of retreat to the sea, some 250 miles (400 km) more to port evacuation, could be cut off.

War was his very element and toil and danger seemed to call forth only an increasing determination to surmount them … I shall never forget Craufurd if I live for a hundred years I think.

At Lisbon the brigade purchased packhorses, and accompanied by Capt Hew Ross' troop of Horse Artillery, they marched to join the main army.

Before dawn on the morning of the 28th Craufurd started his attempt to join Sir Arthur Wellesley before the French attacked him at Talavera.

[15] In early 1810 Wellington obtained intercepted secret letters from Marshall Soult to the King of Spain of the planned attack on Ciudad Rodrigo.

Initially he had 2,500 men from the first battalions of the 43rd, 52nd and 95th together with a troop of horse artillery and one regiment of 500 cavalry from the 1st Hussars of the King’s German Legion.

Robert Craufurd, though only a brigadier, and junior of his rank, had been chosen by Wellington to take charge of his outpost line because he was one of the very few officers then in the Peninsula in whose ability his Commander-in-Chief had perfect confidence.

From March to July 1810 Craufurd accomplished the extraordinary feat of guarding a front of 40 miles against an active enemy of six-fold force, without suffering his line to be pierced, or allowing the French to gain any information whatever of the host in his rear.

He was in constant and daily touch with Ney’s corps, yet was never surprised, and never thrust back save by absolutely overwhelming strength; he never lost a detachment, never failed to detect every move of the enemy, and never sent his commander false intelligence.

Whilst there were four bridges, there were also some fifteen fords between Ciudad Rodrigo and the mouth of the Águeda, which were practicable in dry weather for all arms, and several of them could be used even after a day or two of rain.

They drove him down the defile and chased him back across the river with the loss of two officers and forty-five men killed and wounded.

On 5 May 1811 Masséna launched a heavy attack on the weak British-Portuguese flank, led by Montbrun's dragoons and supported by the infantry divisions of Marchand, Mermet, and Solignac.

This was only achieved by the efforts of the Light Division and the British and King's German Legion cavalry who made a textbook fighting withdrawal.

On 19 January 1812, as he stood on the glacis of Ciudad Rodrigo, directing the stormers of the Light Division, he fell mortally wounded.

[18] He was buried in the breach of the fortress where he had met his death, and a monument in St Paul's Cathedral commemorates Craufurd and Mackinnon, the two generals killed at the storming of Ciudad Rodrigo.

The nickname is supposed to refer to his habit of heavily cursing when losing his temper, his nature as a strict disciplinarian and even to his noticeably dark and heavy facial stubble.