Excerpt from From All the FrontsHe was born in 1860, in the Lincolnshire village of Welbourne. On his father's side he is of Scottish extraction and on his mother's of English. At school he was known as an industrious and pains taking pupil, who seemed determined to get on. Some thought he was likely to become an artist, so fond was he of sketching landscapes and draw ing maps in his spare time.His teachers were greatly interested in him, and he was popular among the pupils because he was a manly boy of bright and cheery dispo sitiou. At home he was greatly influenced by his mother, who was a woman Of high principle and warm heart, and by his father, who had a Strong sense of duty and an independent spirit. Both his parents encouraged him to pursue his studies, and by precept and example taught him to take a serious view of life. While yet quite a boy, Sir William came to realize that success in life de pended mainly upon his own efforts.He came early under the in¿uence of the local rector, Canon Melville, who took a kindly interest in his education. He found the boy studying shorthand on his own account, in addition to doing his ordinary school work, and made arrangements to give him lessons in French, much to young Robertson's delight. He was not only anxious but determined to learn, says one who knew him at this time, indeed, he was quite a glutton for knowledge.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.