Field-Marshal Sir William Robertson From Private to Field-Marshal This copy is ex-library with all

This copy is ex-library with all usual stamps and marks. Has also been rebound. The content though clear and clean. 396 pages with 16 black and white illustrations. Index at rear. A map illustrating his journey to Pamirs, 1894 and Chitral Expedition 1895. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with the South African War.

Robertson was the first and only British Army soldier to rise from private soldier to field marshal.

With the start of the Second Boer War, Robertson was appointed as Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General to Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, the British Commander-in-Chief South Africa, on 15 January 1900.  He was present at the Battle of Paardeberg (17–26 February 1900), the Battle of Poplar Grove (7 March 1900) and other battles in March and May. Robertson was promoted to major on 10 March 1900 and was mentioned in despatches on 2 April 1901. He returned to the War Office in October 1900 and on 29 November 1900 was promoted brevet lieutenant-colonel for his services in South Africa. On 1 October 1901 he was appointed Assistant Quartermaster-General with specific responsibility for the Foreign Military Intelligence section, on the recommendation of the Intelligence expert General Sir Henry Brackenbury, and worked closely with William Nicholson (then Director of Military Operations). Although Robertson was later to be a staunch advocate of Britain's concentration of effort on the Western Front, in March 1902 (before the Entente Cordiale) he wrote a paper ("Treaty Obligations of the British Empire") recommending that, in the event of Belgian neutrality being violated by France or Germany in any future war, Britain should concentrate on naval warfare and deploy no more troops to Belgium than was needed to "afford ocular [visible] proof of our share in the war." His suggestion did not meet with approval at the highest political level: Foreign Secretary Lord Lansdowne commented that British policy had always been to deploy a small force immediately and (as had been done in the Boer War) a corps as soon as mobilisation was complete, whilst Lord Salisbury, then in his final months as Prime Minister, commented that he disapproved of such "meditations". Robertson was promoted to brevet colonel on 29 November 1903. Having been one of the oldest lieutenants in the army, he was now one of the youngest colonels, heading a staff of nine officers (divided into Imperial, Foreign and Special sections). In the later words of a contemporary, Robertson "became rated as a superman, and only key appointments were considered good enough for him." (Wikipedia)