Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson, Bart. GCB, GCMG, KCVO, DSO, Hon LLD Cantab, Hon DCL Oxon

Robertson was the first (and so far the only) soldier to start as a private soldier and finish his career in the highest rank possible in the Army. During the war, he was Quartermaster-General of the BEF, then Chief of the General Staff. In 1916 he became, at the original request of Kitchener, Chief of the Imperial General Staff based at the War Office in London. He later became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine, following his disgraceful dismissal engineered by the politicians over his views about strengthening the BEF on the Western Front, which views were proved to be well founded with the start of Operation Michael by the Germans.

RCC7172 From Private to Field-Marshal (Robertson, Bart.)