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Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO (29 January 1860 – 12 February 1933) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) – the professional head of the British Army – from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War.
Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet was a field marshal and the chief of the British Imperial General Staff during most of World War I. He supported Sir Douglas Haig, the British commander in chief in France, in urging concentration of Britain’s manpower and matériel on the Western Front.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Nov 3, 2023 · Sir William Robert Robertson is the only person in the history of the British Army to have held every rank between private and field marshal in his military career. Born in 1860 to a Lincolnshire family, Robertson began as a humble footman but decided against a life of servitude and pursued a career in the Army.
Commanding the British forces on the Rhine from 1919-20, Robertson was first made a baronet in 1919 and then appointed Field Marshal on 29 March 1920, completing his impressive career ascent. He published his autobiography, From Private to Field Marshal , the following year.
- End of Limited Liability on Western Front↑
- An Alternative to The Western Front?↑
- Robertson’s Demise↑
Friction between William Robert Robertson (1860-1933) and the civilian leadership arose over the former’s support of Douglas Haig’s (1861-1928) view that British operations in the Mediterranean must be subordinated to defeating the Empire’s most important strategical rival, Germany, on the Western Front. Robertson’s first success as Chief of the Im...
David Lloyd George (1863-1945), who served as the secretary of state for war before becoming prime minister, was frequently at odds with Robertson over higher strategy. Horrified by the enormous British casualties on the Western Front, he favored campaigns elsewhere, in Palestine, Italy or even the Balkans. After delay and much consternation, howev...
Lloyd George sought to undermine Robertson’s position as the war cabinet’s official adviser on strategy by suggesting an extraordinary war council that included Sir Henry Wilson (1864-1922), destined to be Robertson’s successor, and Sir John French (1852-1925), the former commander of the British Expeditionary Force. This meeting never took place, ...
Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO (29 January 1860 – 12 February 1933) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) – the professional head of the British Army – from 1916 to 1918 during the First World War.
Wikepedia entry for Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, Bryan5462: MIC for Sir William Robert Robertson from ancestry.co.uk: Bryan5462: The London Gazette, 13 April 1920: Bryan5462: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: Bryan5462: Liddell Hart Military Archives, King's College London: Bryan5462
