Background

William Robert Robertson was born on January 29, 1860 in Welbourn, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom. His father, Thomas Charles Robertson, was the Welbourn postmaster and also the village tailor. William's mother, Ann Robertson, had a strong firm character, she was a deeply religious person who profoundly influenced her son.

Education

All of the Robertson children went to the village school. William liked school and was an avid reader. He particularly liked maps and geography and had a certain aptitude for drawing and writing. He left school when he was thirteen years old; by that time he was a monitor, which meant keeping a sharp eye on the younger children and even teaching some of them for the princely salary of sixpence a week.

In 1896, already a captain, Robertson applied to attend Staff College at Camberley and passed out second in December 1898.

Career

William Robert Robertson enlisted in the army in 1877 as a trooper in the 16th (The Queen's) Lancers. He was promoted to lance-corporal in February 1879 and corporal in April 1879. Two years later he became lance-sergeant, and sergeant in January 1882. In 1885 Robertson was promoted to troop sergeant major and became an officer in 1888, being posted as a second lieutenant in the 3rd Dragoon Guards.

Robertson saw his first active service in 1891, distinguishing himself as Railway Transport Officer for the expedition to Kohat. The same year he was promoted to lieutenant. The years 1892 - 1896 saw him in the intelligence department in India. During his time there, he served as an attaché in the Intelligence Branch of the Quartermaster-General's Department at Simla, became a protégé of Sir Henry Brackenbury and took part in the Chitral Expedition as Brigade Intelligence Officer. In 1895 he was promoted to captain.

In 1899 Robertson was seconded for service in the Intelligence Department at the War Office. In the South African War, he served as Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General to Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts. Robertson was promoted to major in 1900, returned to the War Office and became brevet lieutenant-colonel for his services in South Africa. The next year, he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General with specific responsibility for the Foreign Military Intelligence section.

In 1903 Robertson was promoted to brevet colonel and was made Assistant Director of Military Operations under James Grierson in 1905. During the First Moroccan Crisis, Grierson and Robertson conducted a war game based on a German march through Belgium. In 1906 they toured the Charleroi to Namur area with the French liaison officer Victor Huguet. In 1906 Robertson also toured the Balkans.

In 1907 Robertson became Assistant Quartermaster-General at Headquarters Aldershot Command and brigadier general on the General Staff at Headquarters Aldershot Command. In 1909 he scouted the likely route of a German invasion - Belgium, the Meuse and Luxembourg - with Smith-Dorrien and Rawlinson.

Robertson was appointed commandant of the Staff College in 1910 and was promoted to major-general. In 1913 he received the position of director of military training in the War Office.

During World War I Robertson served in France first as quartermaster general of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and later its Chief of Staff. In December of 1915 he became Chief of the Imperial General Staff. In this capacity, Robertson held most of the powers of the secretary of state for war.

Robertson was a strong supporter of BEF commander Douglas Haig and was committed to a Western Front strategy focusing on Germany and was against what he saw as peripheral operations on other fronts. Distressed by the heavy casualties on the Western Front, some politicians began to question Robertson's military strategy. This resulted in the unwillingness of the government to introduce conscription in 1915 and increasing the number of soldiers serving in France. David Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War, disagreed with Robertson and Haig that the war could and should be won in the west. He and Winston Churchill sought theatres where both political and military gains might be made without engaging the main body of the German Army. However, their views were undermined by failed Gallipoli and Dardanelles ventures.

The mutual distrust between the two generals, Robertson and Haig, on one side, and their civilian superior, Lloyd George, on the other, grew after the latter became prime minister in December 1916. The same year Robertson was promoted to permanent general. In 1917 he was appointed Aide-de-Camp General to the King.

Robertson resigned as Chief of the Imperial General Staff in February 1918 and was appointed General Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Eastern Command. In June 1918 he was promoted to General Officer Commanding-in-Chief for Home Forces. In 1919 - 1920 he was Commander-in-Chief of the British Army during the occupation on the Rhine.

Robertson was created a baronet in 1919 and a field marshal in 1920. He wrote two books of memoirs, From Private to Field-Marshal (1921) and Soldiers and Statesmen 1914–18, 2 vol. (1926).

Achievements

• Sir William Robert Robertson was the only British soldier ever to begin a military career as a private and end as a field marshal. He played a significant role in the First World War, believing that the war could only be won on the Western Front. Although he had an uncomfortable relationship with many of the leading politicians of the era and disagreements with fellow officers, he continued to express his opinions forcibly. Whilst he may have made mistakes, his views on strategy and tactics were ultimately vindicated.
  
  Robertson was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) on June 30, 1905, being advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on February 18, 1915 and to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on January 24, 1917. On July 16, 1910, he was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order, and was advanced to Knight Commander on September 26, 1913 and to Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1931.
  
  Robertson was also made a Grand Officer of the French Legion of Honour on September 10, 1915. He was awarded the French Croix de guerre and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, on April 21, 1917 and on May 26, 1917 respectively. Robertson became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George in the King's Birthday Honours in June 1919 and created a Baronet, of Beaconsfield in the County of Buckingham on December 29, 1919.
  
  After the War Robertson was also awarded the Belgian War Cross, the Grand Cross of the Serbian Order of the White Eagle (with Swords) and the American Distinguished Service Medal. This was as well as being appointed to the Chinese Order of Chia-Ho (1st Class), being given the Grand Cross of the Order of the Crown of Italy, being appointed to the Russian Order of Alexander Nevsky and receiving the Japanese Grand Cordon of the Order of the Rising Sun.
  
  Mount Robertson in the Canadian Rockies and Sir William Robertson High School in his birth village, Welbourn, were named after him.

Works

More photos

• book

  • From Private To Field-Marshal

    (This is nothing less than a fascinating account, touching...)

    1921
  • Soldiers And Statesmen, 1914-1918 Vol. II

    (Written a short time after the war with it all fresh and ...)

  • Soldiers And Statesmen, 1914-1918 Vol. I

    (Written a short time after the war with it all fresh and ...)

Views

In accordance with what he had been taught at the Staff College, derived from the German military theorists, Robertson believed that victory could be achieved only by the defeat of the enemy's strongest army and that therefore the Western Front was the decisive theatre. His long-term friend, General Douglas Haig, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force, agreed with this strategy. On the same principle, Robertson believed that the British Expeditionary Force should not operate as an independent army, but conform to the strategy of its French allies, to avoid dispersal of resources.

Robertson also understood the balance of strategy and politics. As Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Robertson insisted that CIGS alone should determine strategy, leaving the Secretary of States for War to deal with the Army's administration, finance and supplies, as had been the normal arrangement prior to Kitchener's appointment. Like Kitchener, he withheld information from the Cabinet, ostensibly for security reasons, but also to minimize the influence of civilian politicians on the conduct of the war.

Realizing that Britain had no vital interest in the Balkans, Robertson opposed campaigns in the region and sought an immediate withdrawal of forces there. In August 1916 he submitted a paper stating that the current policy turned the Mediterranean into a French-Italian lake and left the Balkans under Slav domination. He felt that no concession should be made to Balkan nationalism, and he wanted Austro-Hungarian integrity maintained. He felt that Britain should not provide assistance unless she received a tangible reward, beyond the denial of German access to the Aegean. He attended a conference in Rome in January of 1917 to support these views.

Although not a pacifist, in his later years Robertson often spoke out against the cost - both financial and human - of war.

Quotations: "If the Germans are to be defeated they must be beaten by a process of slow attrition, by a slow and gradual advance on our part, each step being prepared by a predominant artillery fire and great expenditure of ammunition".

Membership

Robertson became chairman of the Brewers' Trustees and a director of British Dyestuffs Corporation as well as President of the British Legion. He became a director of the British Palestine Corporation and of the London General Omnibus Company.

Personality

Robertson was widely regarded as "the cleverest man in the army." He had a prodigious memory and was very quick on the uptake. Especially good at languages, he qualified in six Indian ones: Urdu, Hindi, Persian, Pashto, Punjabi, and Gurkhali. He also mastered German and French.

His interests were fishing, shooting and golf.

Physical Characteristics: Robertson was a man of strong physique and physical presence.

Quotes from others about the person

• Winston Churchill: "Robertson was an outstanding military personality. His vision as a strategist was not profound … he had no ideas of his own, but a sensible judgement negative in bias."
  
  David R. Woodward: "Robertson's choice of an army career seemed an especially unfortunate one for someone without the advantages of birth, wealth, or education. The Victorian army was dominated by middle- and upper-class officers, and a ranker had little opportunity for self-improvement and advancement. But Robertson was not typical of his fellow troopers who devoted their free time to women and excessive drinking. Strong and athletic, he dominated troop competitions. But it was his intellect rather than his physical fitness that largely explains his extraordinary rise through the ranks."
  
  David R. Woodward: "Robertson's intellectual mentor, the military theorist George F. R. Henderson, emphasized the concentration of forces in the primary theatre of the enemy in order to overwhelm his main force in a decisive battle. These principles served as a bond between Robertson and Haig when the two men dominated British military policy."

Interests

• fishing, shooting, golf

Connections

In 1894 Robertson married Mildred Palin, the second daughter of Lieutenant-General Charles Thomas Palin of the Indian Army. Their marriage was a long and happy one, with Mildred Robertson giving her husband much help in his professional studies. They had four children, Brian, John, Rosamund and Helen. His younger son John predeceased him at the age of eighteen. His elder surviving son, Brian Hubert, succeeded to the baronetcy, rose to become a general in the British Army and was raised to the peerage as Baron Robertson of Oakridge in 1961.

Father:

Thomas Charles Robertson

Mother:

Ann Dexter Robertson

Spouse:

Mildred Adelaide (née Palin), Lady Robertson

Son:

Brian Robertson

(July 22, 1896 - April 29, 1974)

General Brian Hubert Robertson, 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge was a senior British Army officer during the Second World War, who played an important role in the East African, North African and Italian Campaigns. After the war he was the Deputy Military Governor of Germany from 1945 to 1948, and then the Military Governor from 1948 to 1949.

Son:

John Robertson

(1909 - 1928)

Daughter:

Rosamund Robertson

Daughter:

Helen Robertson

Friend:

Douglas Haig

References

• Soldier True: The Life and Times of Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson, Bart. GCB, GCMG, KCVO, DSO 1860-1933 A book by Victor Bonham-Carter
  1963
• Field Marshal Sir William Robertson: Chief of the Imperial General Staff in the Great War Sir William Robertson served as the professional head of the British army and as the constitutional military adviser to both Asquith and Lloyd George from December 1915 to February 1918. This account, based on many new sources, critically examines his leadership of the general staff as the burden of fighting the main body of the German army shifted to the British. This study sheds light on the origins and conduct of the Somme and Passchendaele offensives, and the efforts to coordinate the Allied war effort, especially the controversial effort to subordinate Haig to General Nivelle and the creation of the Supreme War Council with its inter-allied staff.
  1998
• The British Field Marshals, 1736-1997: A Biographical Dictionary A book by T.A. Heathcote
  1999
• British Generalship on the Western Front 1914-1918: Defeat into Victory This book by Simon Robbins explores the British Army's response on the Western Front to a period of seminal change in warfare.
  2005