William Robertson (British Army Officer) - Personality and Assessments

Personality and Assessments

Robertson was a man of strong physique and physical presence, admired by the King for his rise from humble origins. He had a prodigious memory and was very quick on the uptake, sometimes interrupting briefings with: “yes, I have got that, get on to the next point”. However, although he could be amusing company off duty, as he rose the career ladder his brusque manner, possibly adopted to assert his authority, became more marked, even with superiors. “I’ve 'eard different” was a favourite retort to politicians who made military suggestions.

Churchill later wrote that Robertson “was an outstanding military personality. His vision as a strategist was not profound … he had no ideas of his own, but a sensible judgement negative in bias” Hankey wrote that “he knew what he wanted and he nearly always got his own way”.

In October 1918 Foch told Derby that Robertson was “a far sounder man than Wilson” with a greater grasp of strategic detail, but less able to keep the British Cabinet on side. Foch had earlier told Spears "Robertson builds small, but he builds solid".

Spears wrote that he was "an overwhelming personality ... very intolerant of ignorance ... arrogant, aitchless when excited, and flat-footed (both figuatively and physically) ... an ambulating refrigerator ... when speaking of (any minister) he generally closed the sentence by making the gesture of a governess rapping the knuckles of a child fiddling with things on the table ... a great man, probably the best and finest soldier we produced in the war ... his manners were not good ... for the sake of standing by Haig he probably put aside and overrode many ideas of his own ... (in his loyalty to Haig) he was plus royaliste que le roi". His papers were "a monument of common sense and foresight". Spears' secretary was the daughter of Maurice, whom he described as "Man Friday" to "this whale of a man, this soldier shipwrecked on the desert island of politics".

Lloyd George (Memoirs Vol i. p467) accused Robertson of having a "a profound and disturbing suspicion of all foreigners", but this is an exaggeration - with Britain and France allies for only the second time in their history, Robertson had played a leading role in instigating the Chantilly Conference at the end of 1915, and extended his hand to reach agreement with Nivelle in March 1917 and Petain in summer 1917.