During the First World War, Robertson served with the 10th Light Horse in the Gallipoli Campaign, including the disastrous Battle of the Nek, where much of his regiment was wiped out.

He later participated in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, where he captured a Turkish Army general, and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order.

During the Second World War, Robertson led the 19th Infantry Brigade at the Battle of Bardia and accepted the surrender of the Italian Navy at Benghazi.

[1] In October 1911 Robertson took the entrance examination for the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and was accepted into the second intake of cadets in 1912.

[3] Major General William Bridges decided that the Duntroon cadets, none of whom had yet finished their training, should be split up and posted to the various units of the AIF as regimental rather than staff officers.

[3] The 10th Light Horse was concentrated at Claremont, Western Australia, before departing for the Middle East on the transport Mashobra in February 1915.

The 10th Light Horse was reorganised after returning to Egypt in January 1916, and Robertson assumed command of B Squadron, with the AIF rank of major from May 1916.

[2] In April 1922 he sat for and passed the entrance examination to the Staff College, Camberley, where his class included Majors Arthur Percival, John Smyth and Georges Vanier, and Lieutenant Colonel Harry Crerar.

[2] Like other regular officers, Robertson was opposed to the "Singapore strategy", and therefore to the defence policy of the government of the day, and said so publicly in the British Army Quarterly.

Frank Berryman, the 6th Division's General Staff Officer (Grade 1), and Alan Vasey, the Deputy Assistant Adjutant and Quartermaster General (DA&QMG), were eager for 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.

[26] Comments by "a sunburnt red-headed Australian brigadier" made headlines in Britain, where senior officers rarely spoke to the media, but did not endear Robertson to his critics, who felt that his ego was out of control.

[27] Following the entry of the 19th Infantry Brigade to Benghazi on 7 February, Robertson declared "give me two stout ships and a bearing on Rome and we'll dine in the hall of the caesars".

[28] For this campaign, Robertson was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE),[29] but later that month he was hospitalised for varicose veins in the leg he had broken in 1917.

Around the time of the outbreak of war with Japan, many senior officers with distinguished records in the Middle East were recalled to Australia to lead militia formations and fill important staff posts.

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 Robertson be appointed Commander in Chief.

[35] Initially, the 1st Armoured Division had a key role in the defence of Australia as a mobile reserve, but it was only partly trained and equipped, representing another major challenge to Robertson as a trainer of troops.

[38] While there he joined Vasey and Brigadier Bertrand Coombes, the Commandant of Duntroon, in conducting an inquiry into the future training and organisation of the Royal Military College.

Their report, submitted to Blamey in January 1945, called for a number of reforms, the most significant being that the postings of regular officers should alternate between staff and regimental duties.

[39] In April 1945, Robertson returned to the field, replacing Alan Ramsay as commander of the 5th Division, which was then engaged in the final stages of the New Britain Campaign.

Northcott had negotiated the Northcott-MacArthur agreement in January 1946 with General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, which governed the terms and conditions under which the BCOF would occupy part of Japan.

Robertson had a poor relationship with the British component commander, Major General David Tennant Cowan, who resented being placed under an Australian officer.

[46] Robertson clashed repeatedly with Lieutenant General Sir Charles Gairdner, the official representative of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

[49] 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.

The British Army then scrambled to meet its own logistic needs, creating ad hoc arrangements and requesting support from Robertson and MacArthur.

The Chief of the General Staff, Sydney Rowell, sent a cable to his British counterpart, Field Marshal Sir William Slim, warning of "a bugger's muddle in which the only people to suffer will be the soldiers".

Slim agreed; a Maintenance Area was established in Korea to support Commonwealth forces there, which drew some resources from American sources, such as petrol, oil and lubricants, engineer stores, casualty evacuation and port operations, and the rest from BCOF in Japan.

After rashly ordering the 27th British Commonwealth Brigade to Pusan without transport or heavy equipment, much to Robertson's annoyance, Bouchier did attempt to confine himself to acting solely as a liaison officer.

Soon after, during the Battle of the Imjin River, Robertson was consulted by the Americans about the possible consequences of the loss of the 1st Battalion, the Gloucestershire Regiment, and he advised them not to endanger the rest of the I Corps line with a rescue attempt.

[56] In retirement 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.

For pall bearers, he had eight generals: Leslie Beavis, Allan Boase, Cyril Clowes, Hector Edgar, Ragnar Garrett, Edmund Herring, Sydney Rowell and Colin Simpson.