BOOK REVIEW : FROM PRIVATE TO FIELD MARSHALL.

This book, originally written in 1921, is the autobiography of Field Marshall Sir William Robertson, the only man to rise from the rank of private to Field Marshall in the history of the British Army. He joined up aged just 17 in 1877 becoming Chief of the Imperial General Staff during much of World War 1. Robertson's story is quite remarkable and illustrates wonderfully life in the British army during the Victorian and Edwardian era.

Although a product of the 19th century the book is very well written and does not suffer from the usual flowery language of people of that time. This no doubt reflects Robertson's limited education prior to joining up and the impact of many years of military training. Naturally much of the book deals with the War but there are lots of chapters covering his early service in England, India and South Africa which are fascinating.

He was a very clever man with a gift for foreign languages, speaking six Indian languages as well as French and German. His only weakness appears to have been in debating with politicians who tended to be more gifted in verbal argument. In these situations I get the impression they regarded him as wooden and unimaginative while he saw them as militarily ignorant and unreasonable. His removal as CIGS in early 1918 was the inevitable result of this clash which was a great loss to the nation. However the tendency of politicians to assume they are just as good at military strategy as the generals is an age old problem and no doubt is still with us today.

Overall an excellent book covering the life of an extraordinary man while giving  good insights into both life in the British army prior to 1914 and the activities of the senior commanders during the War.