FAMOUS SOLDIER DEAD

Taranaki Daily News, 15 February 1933, Page 5

FAMOUS SOLDIER DEAD

S3R WILLIAM ROBERTSON ITO S ) PRIVATE TO FIELD-MARSHAL. SERVICES DURING THE WAR. To find a field-marshal’s baton in his . haversack is commonly said to be the possible lot of every solders, but Sir Wifiiam Robertson, whose death has occurred in England at the age of 73 years, vzas actually the first field-marshal in the British Army who had risen from the ranks. He was born at Welßourn, Lincolnshire, of poor parents.. At" the age of 16 he entered the service of e family in the neighbourhood, but this form of service was not to his taste and he enlisted as a private in the 16th Lancers in 1877. Life in the Army was very hard during his early days, and the discipline was so severe and so stupid that it was very easy even for a good soldier to be court-martialled and hig career ruined for some paltry offence. The young soldier, however, was fop, tunate in having a kindly officer and nfs “crimes” did not prevent the later from recommending him for promotion. In 1918 one of the officers he had served under as a private became his military secretary. . . In 1888 he obtained a commission tS the 3rd Dragoon Guards, then to On joining the regiment he studied hi« profession in all its branches and learn* ed the native languages. In 1892 h& joined the Intelligence Department aft , Simla. While on the staff he made n reconnaissance in the Pamirs and in 1?95 served with the Chitral Relief Forces being wounded and receiwag the D.SXX In 1897-8 he passed through the Staff College, being the first officer from the ranks to do so, and then after a ftay months at the War Office went to South Africa on the Intelligence. Staff, companytag Lord Roberts on his advance into the Transvaal and being promoted brevet-colonel for his services. From 1901 to 1907 he was at the War Office and was promoted colonel in 1905. He then spent three years on the <taff at Aidershot. In 1910 he was appointed commandant of the Staff College, was scon afterwards promoted major-general . and in 1913 became Director of Military Training at the War Office. ■. When the war broke out he was made Quartermaster-General of the Expedionary Force. He filled the post most successfully for five months and then, in 1915, became chief of staff to Sir John French. In the autumn he was promoted lieutenant-general for distinguished service, and in December returned to > the War Office to be Chief of the Imperial General Staff. He at once introduced great improvements in the office organisation and during the first one and a-half years of his term he succeeded in keeping the general control ci operations on sound lines. While convinced that the Western Front was the decisive theatre of war and aware bow dangerous was the dispersion of strength in principle, he took eaxe that where operations in distant regions were necessary, adequate forces were allotted to the generals there, with the result that the positions in Mesopotamia, on th® Suez Canal and in East Africa were ecmpletely transformed within a very months. His services were rewarded by promotion to general in 1916, and tfaa award of the G.C.B. in 19-7. AU along, however, he had drffientty , in making the Government realise thafc the war could only be won in the West, and in the later months of 1917 it be* 'came harder for him, in view of the dis* appointing results of the Allied offer» sives there, to convince the War Cabinet that the diversion of troops to Palestine or the Balkans or the Austro-Italian frontier endangered the prospects of victory in the decisive theatre and migta indeed lead to disaster there. His anxie» ties were increased by the way in which the problem of man-power was treated; He also foresaw that the plan of having- i r , a supreme war. council composed at military representatives of the AHiefc, such as was introduced toward the end of the year, was unworkable. In February, 1918, therefore, he res* signed, just a month before the success that attended tire great German offensive of March proved how correct had been his appreciation of the situation. He was given the Eastern Command in England, and three months later succeeded Lord• French as commander-in-chief in Great Britain. On the final distribution of war honours he was given a baronetcy and a “grant of £lO,OOO, and G.C.M.G. From April, 1919, to March,. 1920, te commanded the British troops on the Rhine, and after relinquishing that post on the force being reduced he was promoted field-marshal. In 1921 he his memoirs From Private to Field Marshal. ’ . Sir Wilham never made any secret ct his humble origin. At a dinner given, in his honour he said to. an elderly p&exexs “You do not remember me, my lady, but when you were a girl I had the pleasure of being present at a dinner at whid* you were one of the guests. On tnat casion, however, I could not sit besids you, but‘had to stand behind your chasa and wait upon you.”