Brian Hubert Robertson

General Lord Robertson and the Berlin Airlift

General Brian Hubert Robertson was one of the British Army’s most accomplished military administrators. During two world wars and the opening years of the Cold War, his particular skill was not dramatic battlefield command, but the organization of armies, transport, supplies and military government on an immense scale.

Brian Hubert Robertson was born at Simla, India, on 22 July 1896. He was the son of Mildred Adelaide Robertson and Sir William Robertson, who would become Chief of the Imperial General Staff and the only British soldier to rise from private to field marshal.

Educated at Charterhouse and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Robertson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Engineers on 17 November 1914. After completing engineering and signals training, he served on the Western Front, initially as an aide-de-camp and subsequently in staff appointments. He was mentioned in despatches in January 1916 and again in May 1917.

Robertson was promoted to captain in January 1917. Later that year XI Corps was transferred to Italy following the Italian defeat at Caporetto. He received the Romanian Order of the Crown with Swords and was appointed a Knight of the Italian Order of the Crown. His British service was recognized by the award of the Military Cross in the 1918 New Year Honours.

Returning to France, Robertson became brigade major of the 177th Brigade, 59th Division, during the final Allied offensives of 1918. He was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order in the 1919 Birthday Honours and was mentioned in despatches for a third time.

After the war, Robertson completed his interrupted engineering studies and was seconded to the Indian Army. From 1920 to 1925 he served with the Bengal Sappers and Miners, commanding the 3rd Field Company and participating in military engineering operations on the North-West Frontier. His company helped construct the difficult road leading towards the permanent garrison at Razmak in Waziristan.

Robertson later attended the Staff College at Camberley and held appointments in the War Office. He retired from the Army in 1934 and moved to South Africa, where he successfully managed a Dunlop rubber factory. When the Second World War began, the War Office initially rejected his attempt to return to British service. The Union Defence Force accepted him, and in February 1940 he was commissioned as a lieutenant-colonel in the South African Army.

He served in the East African campaign before moving to the Middle East. Robertson’s talent for administration soon brought him increasingly important appointments supporting the Eighth Army. During the North African and Italian campaigns, he organized the movement of troops, vehicles, ammunition, fuel and supplies across enormous distances and through damaged ports and transportation systems.

He eventually became Chief Administrative Officer at Allied Armies in Italy under General Sir Harold Alexander. His work was essential to sustaining the Allied armies as they advanced northward through Italy. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery later described Robertson as the best chief administrative officer in the British Army.

In July 1945, Robertson went to Germany as Chief of Staff and Deputy Military Governor of the British occupation zone. He subsequently served as Deputy Military Governor under Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Sholto Douglas. In November 1947, Robertson became Commander-in-Chief of the British Army of the Rhine and Military Governor of the British Zone of Germany.

His most important post-war test came with the Berlin Blockade. In June 1948 the Soviet Union closed the principal road, rail and water routes connecting the Western occupation zones with Berlin. Robertson recognized that forcing a British or American military convoy through the blockade could cause a direct armed confrontation with Soviet forces.

On 24 June, he ordered British preparations for supplying Berlin by air. He supported the air-supply concept developed by Air Commodore Rex Waite, although Robertson initially doubted whether aircraft could deliver enough tonnage to sustain the city indefinitely. The resulting British operation, named Operation Plainfare, worked alongside the much larger American effort.

Robertson did not command the aircraft or personally direct the daily flying programme. His importance was strategic. As Britain’s senior military authority in Germany, he helped reject the dangerous convoy option, supported the airlift solution and coordinated British policy with the other Western powers. The airlift maintained West Berlin until the Soviet Union lifted the blockade on 12 May 1949.

Robertson then became the United Kingdom High Commissioner in Germany. In recognition of his work there, particularly during the Berlin crisis, he was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire in 1949.

From 1950 until 1953, Robertson served as Commander-in-Chief, Middle East Land Forces. He retired as a full general and became chairman of the British Transport Commission. He was elevated to the peerage in 1961 as Baron Robertson of Oakridge.

General Lord Robertson died on 29 April 1974. His reputation rests on an unusual but indispensable form of military leadership. He was the administrator who helped sustain armies in Africa and Italy and later helped keep a surrounded city alive without turning the Berlin crisis into another war.

Sources: National Portrait Gallery⁠, Harry S. Truman Library oral history⁠, UK Parliament discussion of his Middle East command⁠.