Sir William Robertson | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Robertson in 1915 | |
| Nickname(s) | "Wully" |
| Born | 29 January 1860 Welbourn, Lincolnshire, England |
| Died | 12 February 1933 (aged 73) London, England |
| Buried | Brookwood Cemetery, Surrey, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | British Army |
| Years of service | 1877–1920 |
| Rank | Field Marshal |
| Unit | 16th The Queen's Lancers |
| Commands | 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 Order of the White Eagle[1] |
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. He had increasingly poor relations with David Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War and then Prime Minister. In 1917 Robertson supported the continuation of the Battle of Passchendaele 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.[2] Robertson is the only soldier in the history of the British Army to have risen from an enlisted rank to its highest rank of field marshal.[2]
- ^ Acović, Dragomir (2012). Slava i čast: Odlikovanja među Srbima, Srbi među odlikovanjima. Belgrade: Službeni Glasnik. p. 591.
- ^ a b Woodward, David R. (September 2004). "Robertson, Sir William Robert, first baronet (1860–1933)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/35786. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)