Who were the first field-marshals?
The first FIELD-MARSHALS were George, Earl of Orkney, Governor of Edinburgh Castle. and John, 2nd Duke of Argyll, destined, according to Pope, ‘to shake alike the senate and the field’. They were elevated to the newly created rank by George 11 on 12 and 14 January 1736, respectively.
Prior to this date the most senior commanders in the British Army were known by the title of ‘Captain-General’. The designation `Field-Marshal’ was borrowed from the State of Hanover, which had instituted the rank of Field-marshall the previous year.
The first and only Field-Marshal to Rise from the Ranks was Sir William Robertson Bart, GCB, GCMB, KCVO, DSO, who took the Queen’s Shilling at Worcester on 13 November 1877 and was posted to the 16th (Queen’s) Lancers at Aldershot four days later. Robertson was the youngest son of the village tailor at Wellbourn, Lincolnsire. He left school at the age of 12, and had become in turn a gardener’s boy and a footman before enlisting. When his mother heard that he had joined the Army, she wrote: `I will name it to no one. I would rather bury you than see you in a red coat.
Having climbed to the rank of Troop Sergeant-Major, he was gazzetted 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd Dragoon Guards on 27 June 1888.
