1. Horace Robertson was one of the first graduates of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, to reach the ranks of major general and lieutenant general.
55 Facts About Horace Robertson
1. 2.
Horace Robertson later participated in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, where he captured a Turkish Army general, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.
3.
Horace Robertson was a key figure in establishing the Australian Armoured Corps.
4.
Horace Clement Hugh Robertson was born in Warrnambool, Victoria, on 29 October 1894, the sixth child of John Robertson, a state school teacher, and his wife Anne nee Grey.
5.
Horace Robertson was educated at a state school in Outtrim, from May 1905 to April 1910, when he went to The Geelong College.
6.
Horace Robertson was nicknamed "Red Robbie" by his fellow schoolboys after his hair colour, in contrast to his older brother John, or "Black Robbie".
7.
In October 1911 Horace Robertson took the entrance examination for the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and was accepted into the second intake of cadets in 1912.
8.
Horace Robertson's class was due to be commissioned on 1 January 1916, but the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914 caused it to be graduated early.
9.
Horace Robertson was commissioned as a lieutenant in both the Permanent Military Forces and the Australian Imperial Force on 3 November 1914.
10.
On 7 November 1914, Horace Robertson married Jessie Bonnar in a private service at a registry office in Collingwood.
11.
Horace Robertson was posted to the 10th Light Horse as its machine-gun officer.
12.
Horace Robertson was one of seven members of his class in the 3rd Light Horse Brigade.
13.
The 10th Light Horse was reorganised after returning to Egypt in January 1916, and Horace Robertson assumed command of B Squadron, with the AIF rank of major from May 1916.
14.
At the Battle of Magdhaba, his colonel was wounded and Horace Robertson took over command of the 10th Light Horse.
15.
Horace Robertson was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his actions during this battle.
16.
Horace Robertson led a mounted charge and was the first officer to enter the enemy's trenches.
17.
Horace Robertson is an officer of exceptional organising and training powers and thoroughly deserves reward.
18.
Horace Robertson's men took many Turkish prisoners, including a senior officer of engineers who insisted that he would only surrender his sword to the Australian officer in charge.
19.
Horace Robertson was disappointed to discover that it was Robertson, a youthful major, but handed it over anyway.
20.
In February 1917 Horace Robertson was attached to the Desert Column as a staff officer.
21.
Horace Robertson was then posted to the newly formed Yeomanry Mounted Division as a General Staff Officer.
22.
On returning to Australia, Horace Robertson became brigade major in the 7th Light Horse Brigade.
23.
Horace Robertson eventually became the first Australian to graduate with an A-grade pass.
24.
Horace Robertson attended the School of Musketry at Hythe, Kent; the Machine Gun School at Netheravon, Wiltshire; the Artillery College at Woolwich; the Anti-Gas School at Porton Down; the Anti-Aircraft School at Westerham, Kent; and the Royal Tank Corps School at Woolwich.
25.
Horace Robertson returned to Australia in 1925 to become Chief Instructor at the Small Arms School at Randwick, New South Wales in 1926.
26.
Horace Robertson returned to Sydney in February 1934 as General Staff Officer at the 2nd District Base.
27.
Horace Robertson was finally breveted as a lieutenant colonel in June 1936.
28.
Horace Robertson argued for a local defence of Australia by land and air units.
29.
However, in view of the weakness of the Royal Navy, Richmond was forced to concede that Horace Robertson's approach was not unreasonable.
30.
In March 1939, Horace Robertson was appointed commander of the 7th Military District, which encompassed the Northern Territory.
31.
Horace Robertson was promoted to the temporary rank of colonel in August 1939, and this became substantive in November.
32.
On 4 April 1940, Horace Robertson joined the Second AIF himself, with the rank of brigadier, and was allocated the AIF service number VX20321.
33.
Horace Robertson was appointed to command the 19th Infantry Brigade, which was then being formed from units made surplus by the reduction of the 6th Division from 12 infantry battalions to nine.
34.
Frank Berryman, the 6th Division's General Staff Officer, and Alan Vasey, the Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General, were eager for Horace Robertson to do well and show that Staff Corps officers could make good commanders, and if that could be done at the expense of an old-style reservist like Stanley Savige, so much the better.
35.
Horace Robertson accepted the surrender of the fortress commander, Generale di Corpo d'Armata Pitassi Mannella, and later Admiral Massimiliano Vietina, the Italian naval commander.
36.
Horace Robertson was replaced as commander of the 19th Infantry Brigade by Alan Vasey.
37.
When Horace Robertson recovered he was given responsibility for the training of AIF reinforcements in the Middle East.
38.
One of these was Horace Robertson, who was recalled to take command of the 1st Cavalry Division in January 1942.
39.
Major Generals Alan Vasey and Edmund Herring, and Brigadier Clive Steele, fearing that Gordon Bennett or John Lavarack was about to be appointed Commander in Chief, approached the Minister for the Army, Frank Forde, with a proposal that in view of the danger of an invasion of Australia, all officers over the age of 50 be immediately retired and Horace Robertson be appointed Commander in Chief.
40.
Horace Robertson faced public and political criticism over "shelving" senior officers, including Robertson.
41.
However, it was always more likely that Horace Robertson would be the one recalled.
42.
On 13 September 1945, Horace Robertson accepted the surrender of Lieutenant General Hatazo Adachi, and his Japanese Eighteenth Army.
43.
In December 1945, Horace Robertson took over command of the First Army, becoming one of a select number of Australians to command such a formation, at least on paper, with the rank of lieutenant general.
44.
Horace Robertson returned to Australia in March 1946 to take over Southern Command.
45.
Horace Robertson had a poor relationship with the British component commander, Major General David Tennant Cowan, who resented being placed under an Australian officer.
46.
Horace Robertson clashed repeatedly with Lieutenant General Sir Charles Gairdner, the official representative of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
47.
Horace Robertson resisted Gairdner's requests for BCOF aircraft for personal purposes.
48.
Horace Robertson intended to travel to London to be invested by King George VI but his plans were disrupted by the outbreak of the Korean War on 25 June 1950.
49.
Horace Robertson passed on to the Australian government requests from MacArthur for BCOF assistance, which were agreed to.
50.
Horace Robertson built up what became the British Commonwealth Forces Korea.
51.
Horace Robertson's brief made it clear that he had no responsibility or authority over the BCOF or Commonwealth forces in Korea.
52.
Horace Robertson was recalled to Australia in November 1951, replacing Sir Edmund Herring as Director General of Recruiting.
53.
Horace Robertson turned 60 on 29 October 1954, and retired the next day, after racking up 3,985 days of active service in 43 years in the Australian Army.
54.
In retirement Horace Robertson served on the committee of the Metropolitan Golf Club and was president of the Victorian branch of the Royal Empire Society for a time.
55.
Horace Robertson commenced writing his memoirs, which he promised would be "the million pound libel".