THE EX-CHIEF OF STAFF

Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 49, 26 February 1918, Page 10

THE EX-CHIEF OF STAFF

SIR W. ROBERTSON'S CAREER.

Sir William Robertson, K.C.V.O , X.C.8., D.S.C., late Chief of Imperial Gereral Staff, and now in charge of the Eastern Home command, had a most remarkable career from the ranks to chief of staff of the army. A power-fully-built country boy, he went to London at the age of 19 and enlisted in the 9th Lancers. Promotion fro 71 the ranks is not frequent. The great majority of officers come from the military school at Sandhurst. But the door is kept open for a private of good education and character. By passing a stiff examination he may secure, a commission. Young Robertson had had only an elementary education; but he set out to make up for the deficiency by study. He invested his shilling a day, which is the pay of a British private, in books. As a British regular trooper has none Ux> much time to himself he used to get comrades to read to him from Bacon and the English classics while he was grooming his horse or cleaning his equipment. Not until he had served ten years did he pass bis examination which gave him a commission in the Third Dragoon Guai'ds. He was then 29, and the average second lieutenant had about eight years the start of iim on the army list. In the course of lineal promotion he could never hope to be more than a major. Special promotion could come only through distinguishing himself. Mac Donald, who won fame by his charge at Omdurman, and other eminent British commanders who had risen from ths ranks, had won their way as natural leaders of men in the field. Robertson's career is the more striking, officers say, because it is due to excellence in organisation and in the application of the methods of modern war which presup N poses the grounding of a thorough scientific military education.

Four years after he had received his commission he had won enough attention to be assigned to the intelligence branch' of the quartermaster's department in India. In India he found his opportunity. Rewards are given officers for learning native dialects. To the average officer there is nothing very attractive in spending hours with a native "munshi" or teacher in acquiring a tongue which, can be of use with only some frontier tribe. Robertson offered his munshi a quarter of the reward when he was proficient enough to earn it by passing an examination. This gained for him another opportunity, which was to apply his knowledge by explorations, on the north-west frontier. When the Chitral trouble came his linguistic accomplishments and his knowledge of the country were invaluable. He came out of the Chitral campaign with the Distinguished i Service Order for services which included gallantry in action when he was severely wounded. Now he was a "marked man" in the service, marked by stubborn application which had brought him from the ranks and his demonstrated ability. On the staff throughout the South African campaign he | earned the praise of Roberts and Kit- j chenor by his capacity for getting things done when others sometimes failed. When in 1910 he was placed in command of the Army Staff College, even those who agreed that he had shown himself to be the man for the place were amazed at the thought that a man who had been for ten years a private without any groundwork of regular academic education, should become the director of an institution which gathers the ablest officers of the army ftir instruction. Meantime he had kept on with his languages. He now knew French and German, and he had studied the Continental army systems. As Director of Military Training at the War Office ho later had much to do with the preparation of the British Expeditionary Force. He went to France with it as the QuartermasterGeneral who was responsible for keeping that army overseas supplied. His success in this capacity led to his appointment as Chief of Staff in DecemI ber, 1915. ■ ■ •