ROBERTSON'S RISE.

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

ROBERTSON'S RISE.

PRIVATE TO 1-TI_LD-MAK_HAL. Although it ii= a well-worn saying that "every private carries a lieldmarshul's baton in liis knapsack," there has been only one private in the British Army to prove it. Thir.v-_.i-- rears ago Field-Mar. ha. Sir William Robertson,'ti.C.B., G.C.U.U., X.C.V.0., C.8., D.5.0., the holder of countless Imperial honours, and decorated by I lie Governments of America. Belgium, Prance, Italy, China, Japan, Serbia, and Ku.-.-ia, was serving as a private in the Uragoon Guards I-'or thirteen yearn lie bail experienced the extreme hardship, and almost unbearable monotonies that were the accompaniments of life in the ranks forty lyears ago. ll was a hard school, but it taught him its lesson. I Lecturiug recently lo members of the Working Men's College, Sir William gave a vivid picture of his life a_ a private. __ Blankets wcic washed once a year and sheets once a month. A private's crock _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. Por breakfast it became a eoll'ee mug-, and later in the morning a beer mug. In 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 be 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. "Tho only bright spot in the private's life," said Sir William, "was the moment, once a week, when he was paid his four or five 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 perseverencc and brilliance as a soldier that he should 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 of personality and will it required for a private to rise from the ranks to a commission. . - - - -