GREAT SOLDIER'S CAREER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21254, 6 August 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

GREAT SOLDIER'S CAREER

FROM RANKS TO WAR-LORD THE h BAD OLD DAYS " FAMOUS FIELD-MARSHAL'S STORY Sir William Robertson, the distinguished soldier, who rose from the ranks to become field-marshal, was once tempted to " desert." Broadcasting in the 8.8.C.'s " Rungs of the Ladder " series on June 20 he described the " hard-swearing, harddrinking old soldiers " with whom he had to mix when he first, joined the army. Sir William stated that he joined his regiment on a weekly pay day, and his new companions returned to quarters in various stages of drunkenness. He began to wish himself back at home. " I continued! to wish it for several nights afterwards," said the field-marshal, "and would li« awake for hours meditating whether to see> tho thing through or get out of bed, put; on my plain clothes, which I still had, and desert. " Fortunately for me another occupant of the room removed the temptation which these clothes afforded. He had none of his own, so one night he appropriated mine, went off in them, and never came back. He was an American." Sir William, who was one of a family of eight and depenaed for education " upon a school of the most primitive type, charging fees of 2d a week," described conditions in the Army fifty-five years ago. The daily ration, he said, consisted of a pound of bread and three-quarters of a pound of meat. Men had'to pay for everything else themselves as best they could, out of a daily wage of fourteen pence, as well as for a large part of their clothing, ; Saved From a Court-martial. .There was no crockery except one pla<t* and one: basin for each man. The basia was used in turn as a coffee cup, beer mug, soup plate, fehaving mug, and receptacle for pipeclay with which to cleaa gloves and belts. Hospitals were as inefficient and uncomfortable aa they possibly could be. " Discipline, too, was very harsh aiu! also short-sighted," Sir William said. I was still* well under nineteen when I had my chief experience of it. I was shut up for three weeks in the regimental guardroom pending trial by court-martial for allowing a captured deserter to escape when escorting him back from London to Aldershot. ' ' 11 ." / ... " I put in a lofcjgtpre hard thinking during those three weeks, .especialy at night, for I was given nothing more comfortable to sleep on than .a wooden bed and pillow, with a cloak for blankets. Mercifully, the general in authority did not sanction the court-martial, and I was thereby saved from at least six weeks' hard labour in a common gaol." • First Rung oi the Ladder A few t weeks later promotion to lancecorporal 'brought Sir William on to thei first rung of the ladder. Further promotions followed, and- just as everything looked bright and promising, he was seized with the desire to start life afresh as a civilian. " I ought to explain that, ae » not unusual," he said, ' there wail a woman in the case." He was persuaded against this course. A year or two later a recommendation for promotion to the commissioned ranks was sent to tho War Office, but it was hung np for a long time, one reason being that the Budget would not balance, and sothe patient soldier could not" be given the ua.ial snm of £l5O toward the purchase of new uniform and kit. Promotion came eventually, however, and from, being the oldest lieutenant in the Army William Robertson became the youngest colonel. This achievement was damped down by a disappointment which threatened to ruin everything, for the promise of an attractive post was withdrawn for social reasons, and be had .to accept another which took him down the ladder. Thanks to the help of a friend, the inferior post led to Sir William being offered a far better one than the onelßbont which he had been disappointed, and in 1914 the top of the ladder was m sight, reached when he was made Chief of the Imperial General Staff in 1915. " Extremely Lonely Place " " To me, as to others who have reached a high position," said Sir William, " the top of the ladder proved to be an extremely lonely place. There was no one 1 could lean on when tired and anxious, while eveiybody seemed to want to lean on me in one form or another. " My particular burden, however, was made extra heavy by the impatience of certain Ministers who, also feeling the weight of responsibility, and whose point of view sometimes differed from the soldier's, were too much inclined to change from one place to another without sufficient justification. *' As the war dragged on this tendency increased, and one dav culminated in a proposal so dangerous, so it seemed to me, that I was compelled to say I would hnve nothing whatever to do * with it. Ths natural consequence wag that shortly h afterwards I had to step down from the ' top of the ladder so as to make room for f somebody else, and my forty years' climbing efforts thus came to an end."