Robertson ceases to be BEF quartermaster general

On 24 January 1915 Lieutenant-General Sir William Robertson ceased to be Quartermaster General of the British Expeditionary Force. The same day the chief of staff, General Archibald Murray, left, and Robertson was to take his place. He thus ended five months of work during which he had shown himself an efficient and resourceful organiser.

The Quartermaster General was responsible for the supply and transport of the whole force: food, fodder for the horses, ammunition, equipment and movements. Robertson took up the post on 5 August 1914, although under the pre-war plans it was to have gone to Murray. From the start he feared that the force was concentrating too far forward. As early as 22 August, the day before the Battle of Mons, he was considering the possibility of a retreat and had prepared contingency plans.

Supply during the retreat

These preparations proved invaluable during the retreat from Mons. The troops marched fast, and the whereabouts of individual units were often uncertain. Robertson dispensed with detailed peacetime regulations. He had food supplies left by the roads of the retreat, where the retreating soldiers could help themselves. When the German advance threatened the Channel ports, the main supply base was moved from Le Havre to Saint-Nazaire on the Atlantic. The order was issued on 29 August, and more than 22,000 men, 3,500 horses and about 65,000 tons of supplies had to be moved. When the front stabilised, the base returned to Le Havre in the autumn.

According to the historian Dan Todman, the British supply services worked much better in August 1914 than the operations staff. Robertson regularly visited the units, and the soldiers nicknamed him “Old Any-Complaints?”, because at meals he usually asked whether there were any complaints. On 13 September he received the temporary rank of lieutenant-general. Later he prepared the rear services for a force that was growing month by month. In December 1914, together with the Inspector General of Communications, General Ronald Maxwell, he dealt with the question of the ports through which supplies for the expanding army were to flow.

Robertson did not seek promotion, and Field Marshal John French wanted to appoint someone else as chief of staff. A few days later Maxwell came in to fill the post of Quartermaster General vacated by Robertson.