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Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet (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. As CIGS Robertson had increasingly poor relations with Lloyd George, Secretary of State for War and then Prime Minister, and threatened resignation at his 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. ==Early life== Robertson was born in Lincolnshire, the son of Thomas Charles Robertson, a tailor and postmaster of Scottish ancestry, and Ann Dexter Robertson (née Beet).〔Bonham-Carter 1963, p1〕 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〔she was the widow of the infamous Lord Cardigan who had led the Charge of the Light Brigade〕 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”.〔Bonham-Carter 1963, p2-4〕 He began his military career in November 1877 by enlisting for twelve years as a trooper in the 16th (The Queen's) Lancers.〔〔Woodward, 1998, p1〕 As he was three months short of the official minimum age of eighteen, at the behest of the recruiting sergeant he declared his age as eighteen years and two months, these extra five months becoming his “official” age throughout his time in the Army.〔Robertson 1921, p2 Heathcote p250 states that he was five months underage, which is not quite accurate〕 His mother wrote to him in horror: "You know you are the Great Hope of the Family … if you do not like Service you can do something else … there are plenty of things Steady Young Men can do when they can write and read as you can … (the Army) is a refuge for all idle people .. I shall name it to no one for I am ashamed to think of it ... I would rather bury you than see you in a red coat."〔〔Bonham-Carter 1963, p5〕〔Mead, 2008, p53-4〕 On his first night he was so horrified by the rowdiness of the barrack room that he contemplated deserting, only to find that his civilian clothes, which had been parcelled up but not yet sent home, had already been stolen by another deserter.〔Holmes 2011, p548〕 As a young soldier Robertson was noted for his prowess at running, and for his voracious reading of military history. He won company first prizes for sword, lance and shooting.〔 Among the young lieutenants under whom he served were future Lieutenant-General "Jimmy" Babington and “Freddy” Blair who would later be Robertson’s Military Secretary at Eastern Command in 1918.〔Robertson 1921, p2〕 He was promoted to lance-corporal in February 1879 and corporal in April 1879.〔 As a corporal he was imprisoned for three weeks with his head shaven when a soldier under arrest, whom he was escorting, escaped near Waterloo Station; later, whilst serving in Ireland, he once kept soldiers under arrest handcuffed for a twelve-hour train journey rather than risk a repetition.〔Bonham-Carter 1963, p28〕 He was promoted to lance-sergeant in May 1881, and sergeant in January 1882.〔 He obtained a first class certificate of education in 1883, whilst serving in Ireland.〔Bonham-Carter 1963, p31〕 Robertson was promoted to troop sergeant major in March 1885, to fill a vacancy as his predecessor, a former medical student serving in the ranks, had been demoted for making a botch of the regimental accounts and later committed suicide.〔〔〔Holmes 2011, p307〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sir William Robertson, 1st Baronet」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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