Brian Robertson
British Army general
Died when: 77 years 281 days (933 months)Star Sign: Leo
Brian Hubert Robertson, 1st Baron Robertson of Oakridge, GCB GBE KCMG KCVO DSO MC DL (22 July 1896 – 29 April 1974) was a senior British Army officer during the Second World War, who played an important role in the East African, North African and Italian Campaigns.
After the war he was the Deputy Military Governor of Germany from 1945 to 1948, and then the Military Governor from 1948 to 1949.
The son of Field Marshal Sir William Robertson, he was educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers in November 1914, and served on the Western Front and Italian Front during the First World War.
He was awarded a Military Cross in 1918 and the Distinguished Service Order in 1919.After the war he served with the Bengal Sappers and Miners from 1920 to 1925 and took part in the Waziristan expedition of 1923 to 1924.
Following his father's death in February 1933, he succeeded him in his baronetcy.He retired from the Army in early 1934 to become the managing director of Dunlop Rubber in South Africa.
With the outbreak of the Second World War, Robertson re-entered military service in 1940 as a lieutenant-colonel in the South African Army.
He served in East and North Africa, and Italy until the end of the war, notably as Harold Alexander's Chief Administrative Officer in Italy.
He was promoted to brigadier by 1942 with the temporary rank of major-general from 1944 to 1945.Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery considered Robertson the best chief of administration in the British Army.
Robertson was restored to the Active List in October 1945 as a substantive major-general, becoming a lieutenant-general in 1946 and full general in 1947.
He was Commander-in-Chief of Middle East Land Forces from 1950 to 1953, when he retired from military service for the second time to become Chairman of the British Transport Commission, a post he held until 1961.
That year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Robertson of Oakridge, of Oakridge in the County of Gloucester.
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