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Douglas Haig Haig

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"DOUGLAS HAIG HAIG, 1ST Earl (1861-), British fieldmarshal, was born at Edinburgh on June 19 1861, son of John Haig of Cameronbridge, Fife. He was educated at Clifton and Brasenose College, Oxford, and in 1885 joined the 7th Hussars. He was promoted captain in 1891, afterwards passed through the Staff College, and was employed with the Egyptian arm y in 1898 during the Nile campaign, for which he was given a brevet majority. On the outbreak of hostilities in S. Africa in 1899, he went out to Natal on the staff and was present during the opening engagements near Ladysmith. He was afterwards chief staff officer of the cavalry division during Lord Roberts' victorious advance from Cape Colony through the Orange Free State into the Transvaal, and was promoted brevet lieutenantcolonel for his services. In the later phases of the struggle he was in command of a column and later was controlling groups of columns; at the close of the war he was appointed A.D.C. to the King, promoted brevet-colonel, and given the C.B.

Col. Haig subsequently commanded the 17th Lancers for a year, after which he went out to India as inspector-general of cavalry; this appointment he held until 1906, having been promoted major-general in 1905, in which year he married the Hon. Dorothy Vivian, daughter of the 3rd Lord Vivian. From 1906-9 he was a director in the War Office, and during this time he was intimately concerned in the development of the general staff and the improvements effected in the organization of the army, which were set on foot while Lord Haldane was Secretary of State. In 1907 he published a volume of Cavalry Studies. His next appointment was that of chief of the general staff in India, which he held for three years, being promoted lieutenantgeneral in 1910. In 1912 he was brought home to take the command in Aldershot, and in 1913 he was made a K.C.B.

On the mobilization of the Expeditionary Force in 1914, Sir D. Haig took the field as commander of the I. Army Corps, which he led during the Mons, Marne and Aisne operations, and the first battle of Ypres; he 'was promoted full general in November for his services. On the division of the B.E.F. into two armies at the beginning of 1915, he was placed at the head of the first. On the front of his army during 1915 there took place the battles of Neuve Chapelle, Festubert and Loos, and at the end of the year he succeeded Sir J. French in the chief command. He had been made a G.C.B. in the autumn.

The campaigns and battles of the British army in France under Sir Douglas Haig's command are dealt with elsewhere, and here it is sufficient to recall the names of the Somme, of Arras and the Hindenburg Line, of Messines and Ypres, of Cambrai, and finally the great disasters and greater triumphs of 1918. The culminating moment of all his work came on Sept.

28 1918, when, in conjunction with the American attack on the Meuse - Argonne front and the Belgian King's offensive from the Ypres - Yser lines, the British army broke through the Hindenburg Line between Cambrai and St. Quentin. It was after the success of Haig's attack on this front that the German military command made up its mind to yield, and its results were gleaned in a steady and triumphant advance along the whole British front up to the day of the Armistice.

For his great services he was raised to the peerage as Earl Haig of Bemersyde, and was given a grant of £roo,000. The Order of Merit was also conferred upon him. He was appointed commander-in-chief in Great Britain after returning from the Continent, but he held the position for only a few months, as it was then abolished. Thereafter he devoted himself primarily to furthering the cause of the ex-soldier.