ROBERTSON'S RISE.

Auckland Star, Volume LV, Issue 116, 17 May 1924, Page 17

ROBERTSON'S RISE.

PEIVATE TO FlliLD-MAR.HAL. Although it. is a well-worn saying that "every private carries a lieldmarshal's baton iv his knapsack," there bas been only one private in the Uritl-h Army to prove it. Thirty-six years ago Ficld-Mnisha! Sir William Robertson,'G.C.tS.. G.C.U.G., X.C.V.0., CM.. D.S.U., the holder of countless Imperial honours, and decorated by lhe Governments of America, Belgium. France, Italy, China, Japan, Serbia, ami Russia, was serving as a private in the Dragoon Guards. For thirteen years he. had experienced the extreme hardships and almost unbearable monotonies that were the iw com pa turnouts of life in the ranks forty years ago. It was a hard school, but it taught hint its lesson. Lecturing recently to members of the Working Men's College, Sir William gave a vivid picture, of his life as a private. Blankets weie washed once a year and sheets once a month. A private's erock.ry consisted solely of a basin and a plate—"if you were lucky enough to get them." The basin began the day as a shaving mug. For breakfast it became a coffee mug, and later in the morning a beer mug. hi the evening it was. a teacup, and finally a receptacle for mixing pipe-clay for the cleaning of equipment. Draughty stables and cold barrack stairs sent many a man to hospital; the first duty of anyone who reported sick, whether he needed it or not. was to swallow half a pint of a peculiarly vile mixture called "black strap." Accidents were treated in the most casual manner. "The only bright spot in the private's life." said Sir William, "was the moment, once a week, when he was paid his four or live shillings—or perhaps only one!" The men, who were a very rough, hard-swearing, harddrinking lot, were treated consistently like machines of a very inferior type. , "I managed to commit a good many 'crimes' during my thirteen years in the ranks," Sir William confessed. "First I let a deserter escape, then I let a horse go, and a little time later, at Brighton, I lost both a man and a horse together. My colonel, quite frankly, told mc that he was tired of mc." It is a tribute to Sir William Robertson's perseverence and brilliance as a soldier that he sliould have risen out of this soul-destroying atmosphere and have become one of the greatest generals of our time. Those who have never been brought into* contact with the prejudices and the "etiquette" of the British Army of before the war can scarcely realise what an amazing effort A personality and will it required for i private to rise from the ranks to a .•ommission.