ROBERTSON, SIR WILLIAM ROBERT British field marshal, was born at Welbourn, Lines., on Sept. 186o. He enlisted as a private in the 16th Lancers in 1877, and served in the ranks of that regiment until 1888, when he won a commission in the 3rd Dragoon Guards, then in India. He eagerly studied his profession in all its branches and he learned the native languages. He was railway staff officer in the Miranzai and Black Mountain operations of 1891, and in the following year joined the intelligence department at Simla; while on its staff he carried out a reconnaissance to the Pamirs, and in 1895 served with the Chitral Relief Force, being wounded and receiving the D.S.O. He passed through the Staff College in 1897-8—the first officer risen from the ranks to do so—and then, after a few months at the War Office, went out to South Africa on the Intelligence Staff; he accompanied Lord Roberts on his advance from Cape Colony into the Transvaal, and was promoted brevet lieutenant colonel for his services. He spent the period from 1901 to 1907 at the War Office, being promoted colonel in 1903, and he then went to the staff at Aldershot, where he spent three years. In 1910 he was appointed commandant of the Staff College, was shortly afterwards promoted major-general and in 1913 became director of military training at the War Office.
On the mobilization of the army for the World War, Robertson became quartermaster-general of the Expeditionary Force, and in Jan. 1915 chief of the general staff to Sir John French. In the following December he was brought back to the War Office as chief of the imperial general staff and immediately introduced great improvements in the office organization. Convinced that the Western Front represented the decisive theatre of war, and fully aware how mischievous was dispersion of force in principle, he saw to it that, where operations in distant regions were un avoidable, 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 East Africa was completely transformed within a very few months. His services were recognized by promotion to general in
1916 and by the G.C.B. in 1917.
In the later months of 1917 he found it more and more difficult, in view of the disappointing results of Allied offensives in France and Flanders, to persuade the War Cabinet that diversion of fight ing resources to other theatres of war 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 Su preme War Council, introduced towards the end of the year, would not provide effective means for combining the operations of the Allies. In Feb. 1918 he was transferred by the Government to the charge of the eastern command in England—just one month be fore the success that attended the great German offensive of March proved how correct had been his appreciation of the situ ation. Three months later he succeeded French as commander in-chief in Great Britain. After the War he received a baronetcy, a grant of o,000, and in 1919, the G.C.M.G. From April 1919 to March 1920 he commanded the British troops on the Rhine, and, after relinquishing that appointment on the force being re duced, was promoted field-marshal. Robertson received many English and foreign honours. including the G.C.V.O. (1931).
See his From Private to Field-marshal ( 1921 ) ; and Soldiers and Statesmen 1914-1918 (1926).