High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Field Marshal Sir William Robert Robertson, 1st Baronet, GCB, GCMG, GCVO, DSO (29 January 1860 – 12 February 1933) was a British Army officer who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS) from 1916 to 1918, during the First World War. He was the first British Army soldier to rise from private soldier to field marshal.