Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet
| Sir William Robertson, Bt | |
|---|---|
Lieutenant General Sir William Robertson in 1915
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| Nickname(s) | "Wully" |
| Born |
29 January 1860 Welbourn, Lincolnshire, England |
| Died | 12 February 1933 (aged 73) London, England |
| Buried at | Brookwood Cemetery |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1877–1920 |
| Rank | Field Marshal |
| Commands held |
British Army of the Rhine Eastern Command Chief of the Imperial General Staff Staff College, Camberley |
| Battles/wars |
Chitral Expedition Second Boer War First World War |
| Awards |
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Distinguished Service Order Mentioned in Despatches |
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. As CIGS he was committed to a Western Front strategy focusing on Germany and was against what he saw as peripheral operations on other fronts. While CIGS, Robertson had increasingly poor relations with David Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War and then Prime Minister, and threatened resignation at Lloyd George's attempt to subordinate the British forces to the French Commander-in-Chief, Robert Nivelle. In 1917 Robertson supported the continuation of the Third Ypres Offensive, at odds with Lloyd George's view that Britain's war effort ought to be focused on the other theatres until the arrival of sufficient US troops on the Western Front.
Robertson was the first and only British Army soldier to rise from private soldier to field marshal.
Robertson was born in Lincolnshire, the son of Thomas Charles Robertson, a tailor and postmaster of Scottish ancestry, and Ann Dexter Robertson (née Beet). He was educated at the local church school and as an older child earned 6d a week as a pupil-teacher. After leaving school in 1873 he became a garden boy in the village rectory, then in 1875 he became a footman in the Countess of Cardigan's household at Deene Park. He made no mention of this period in his life in his autobiography and seldom spoke of it, although during the First World War he is once said to have remarked to one of his aides: "Boy – I was a damn bad footman."
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