Background

Ethnicity: Douglas Haig was born into a large family of ancient Scottish lineage.

Douglas Haig was born on June 19, 1861, in Edinburgh, Scotland; one of 11 children of John Richard Haig, a wealthy whisky distiller, and Rachel Haig.

Education

Douglas Haig began his education at Mr Bateson's School in Clifton Bank, St Andrews in 1869. The same year, he switched to Edinburgh Collegiate School and then in 1871 to Orwell House, near Edinburgh, and in Warwickshire, before attending Clifton College in 1875. He went up to Brasenose College, Oxford in 1880, where he studied Political Economy, Ancient History and French Literature, and then went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst in 1884. He was commissioned as a lieutenant into the 7th (Queen's Own) Hussars on February 7, 1885.

Later in life, Haig received many honorary degrees from such universities as the University of Edinburgh (Doctor of Laws, 1919), University of Aberdeen, University of Glasgow (Doctor of Laws, 1919), University of Oxford (Doctor of Civil Law, 1919) and University of Leeds (Doctor of Laws, 1920).

Career

Haig's first army duty was in India, where he served as a cavalry officer for about nine years. He later attended Staff College, Camberley and then went to join H.H. Kitchener for his campaign in Sudan in 1898, where he was an outstanding officer and was promoted to brevet major. The following year, after having been assigned to duty in England, Haig was sent to South Africa to fight in the Boer War. He proved to be an excellent officer in action and as a result, Kitchener took him to India as inspector general of cavalry in 1903. Being promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel during the war, by 1904 he had become the youngest major-general in the British Army at that time.

In 1906 R.B. Haldane, the war secretary, brought Haig back to England to serve as director of military training in the War Office. During his time there, Haig helped Haldane establish a general staff, form the Territorial Army as a useful reserve, and organize an expeditionary force for a future war on the European mainland.

In 1909 Haig was back in India as chief of staff to Kitchener, helping him in the completion of the reform of the Indian army. He was promoted to lieutenant-general in November 1910 and given a command in England in 1911 which included the leadership of the 1st Army Corps if and when it might be needed in a war on the Continent.

On the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Haig took his 1st Army Corps of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to France. He was one of the few generals who saw the probability of a long war, and he urged that plans be made with that in mind. Haig won high praise for his leadership as a subordinate commander and received a promotion to general on November 16, 1914. When the government decided to replace Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF after the Battle of Loos in the fall of 1915, Haig was selected and took command on December 19.

In an attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front and relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun, Haig ordered the Somme offensive, which began on July 1, 1916. The British army suffered 60,000 casualties (just under 20,000 of whom were killed) on the first day, the highest in its history, and Haig's conduct of the battle made him one of the most controversial figures of the war. In July 1917, a new offensive - the Third Battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendaele) resulted in further heavy casualties, but did succeed in weakening the German army and helped prepare the way for its defeat in 1918. On January 1, 1917, Haig was made a field marshal.

Haig believed that the war could only be won on the Western Front. This caused friction with Lloyd George, secretary of state for war and prime minister from December 1916 who disagreed with this strategy, supported alternative schemes and intrigued against Haig. From that month to May 1917, Haig was an unwilling subordinate of the French general Robert Nivelle, supreme Allied commander on the western front.

The great German attacks of the spring of 1918 almost broke the British army, but inspired the creation of a single command of allied forces on the Western Front under the French commander Ferdinand Foch, strongly supported by Haig. Between August and November 1918 the Allied forces under Haig's command achieved a series of victories against the German army which resulted in the end of the war.

After the armistice, Haig served as Commander-in-Chief of British Home Forces from 1918 until his retirement in 1921. Haig dedicated the remainder of his life to service in the Royal British Legion (which he helped to establish), caring for the welfare of the troops who served under him during the war. In April 1923, Haig became a director of the Royal Bank of Scotland, as a successor to the recently deceased Charles Carlow. He attended board meetings regularly for the rest of his life, right up to 27 January 1928, only three days before his sudden death.

Achievements

• Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig commanded the British Army when it achieved arguably its greatest victories, those over the Germans on the Western Front during the First World War (1914-18). Haig presided over the largest army in British history. He shaped the BEF into an effective fighting formation that played a decisive role in the defeat of Germany in the titanic battles of late 1918. He was also instrumental in creating the combined Allied command structure that coordinated the march to victory.
  
  Field Marshal Haig was a national hero and was given the title of earl in 1919 and then Baron Haig of Bemersyde in 1921 among other honors. He was created Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in 1915 and Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order in 1916. Haig was also made Knight of the Order of the Thistle in 1917 and Knight Commander of the Order of the Indian Empire in 1911. Among his numerous honors are also Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, Grand Cordon of the Order of Leopold, Grand Cross of the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus and Grand Cross of the Order of the Karađorđe's Star with Swords.
  
  Haig also helped establish the Royal British Legion and worked hard to raise funds for it.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Douglas Haig: War Diaries & Letters 1914-1918

Religion

Under his mother’s influence, Haig developed the habit of prayer. "I attended Church of Scotland at 9.30 am. Reverend Captain Duncan officiated. Text from 90th Psalm Oh Lord Thou hast been our dwelling place for all generations. A most encouraging sermon at this time." There is no doubt that Haig drew great strength from his Christian faith, and Duncan’s sermons in particular.

Views

A traditionalist in many respects, notably in his faith in cavalry and in the military value of superior moral character, Haig would strive throughout the war for a breakthrough battle leading to the type of open warfare he always believed imminent. He had been involved in extensive pre-war military reforms and, during the war, adopted new or improved weapons without hesitation, but proved inflexible and unimaginative in the face of trench warfare. His epic but costly offensives at the Somme (1916) and Passchendaele (1917) have become nearly synonymous with the carnage and futility of First World War battles.

Haig appreciated the military prowess of his colonial and dominion troops, including the Canadians, but chaffed at the political conditions sometimes attached to using them in battle. In the spring of 1918, he was particularly incensed at Canada’s insistence that its divisions fight together as a corps instead of as reinforcements as needed elsewhere in the Allied lines.

The shocking casualties and repeated battlefield failures of the First World War led to widespread criticism of its senior commanders. Of all the Allied generals, Haig was the most censured due to his unrelenting faith in the offensive and the huge losses incurred by imperial forces as a result. Especially after his death in 1928, critics accused him of callously practicing a brutal style of warfare known as attrition, intentionally using the Allies’ superior numbers and firepower to wear down the enemy through relentless frontal assaults and incessant fighting.

Haig never professed to having consciously followed this approach. Instead, he claimed to have sought decisive victory in campaigns where mistaken leadership, bad weather, or adverse tactical conditions prevented it and saw, even in unsuccessful attacks, the gradual erosion of German fighting power. Either way, his offensives resulted in more Allied than German casualties and an enduring debate over generalship in the context of total war.

Quotations: "I believe that the value of the horse and the opportunity for the horse in the future are likely to be as great as ever. Aeroplanes and tanks are only accessories to the men and the horse, and I feel sure that as time goes on you will find just as much use for the horse - the well-bred horse - as you have ever done in the past."

"The machine gun is a much over rated weapon."

"The idea that a war can be won by standing on the defensive and waiting for the enemy to attack is a dangerous fallacy, which owes its inception to the desire to evade the price of victory."

"Once the mass of the defending infantry becomes possessed of low moral, the battle is as good as lost."

"Further, a defensive policy involves the loss of the initiative, with all the consequent disadvantages to the defender."

"There is no other course open to us but to fight it out. Every position must be held to the last man: there must be no retirement. With our backs to the wall, and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us must fight on to the end. The safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind depend alike upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment."

Membership

Douglas Haig was a founding supporter and president of the British Legion, and of the British Legion Scotland, both established in 1921. He was also chairman of the United Services Fund. Also in 1921, he established a charity, the Earl Haig Fund, to raise money to support ex-servicemen. The charity’s greatest fundraising activity was through the sale of remembrance poppies on Armistice Day each year.

While still an undergraduate of Brasenose College, Oxford, Haig was initiated as a Freemason in Elgin’s Lodge at Leven No. 91 at Leven, Fife, taking the first and second degrees of Freemasonry. In 1920 he decided to complete his Masonic progression and returned to his lodge to take the third degree, subsequently serving as Worshipful Master of the lodge from 1925 to 1926. He became an officer of the Grand Lodge of Scotland.

Personality

Haig’s character remains a mystery. He has been depicted as a callous and incompetent man who obstinately persisted with costly and futile offensives driven by boundless yet ill-founded optimism. In contrast, he has been commended for his determination and devotion to duty; a man who stoically bore a burden of responsibility that would have broken lesser men.

His involvement in the founding of the Royal British Legion exhibited his deep concern for the suffering of ex-servicemen.

While he lacked the charisma of a Napoleon or a Patton, Haig was certainly capable of stirring words, as with his famous 'Backs to the Wall' order of April 1918 when the German Spring Offensive looked like succeeding. Nicknamed 'the Chief' by his troops he had their respect if not their love.

Haig was also flexible enough to work with difficult allies. He had to be a diplomat when dealing with the French, who for the first three years of the war were the senior partner in the entente. He also had to work with the Americans, Belgians and Portuguese.

Early in his military career, Haig played polo for England on a tour of the United States (August 1886). He would remain a polo enthusiast all his life, serving as Chairman of the Hurlingham Polo Committee from its reorganization in May 1914 until 1922. He would also be President of the Army Polo Committee and founder of the Indian Polo Association.

An avid golf enthusiast, Haig was captain of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club, St. Andrews, from 1920 to 1921.

Quotes from others about the person

• B.H. Liddell-Hart: "He [Haig] was a man of supreme egoism and utter lack of scruple - who, to his overweening ambition, sacrificed hundreds of thousands of men. A man who betrayed even his most devoted assistants as well as the Government which he served. A man who gained his ends by trickery of a kind that was not merely immoral but criminal."

Interests

• Sport & Clubs

  polo, golf

Connections

During the summer of 1905 Douglas Haig returned to Britain on leave from India. At a reception hosted by the King he met the Honourable Dorothy Maud Vivian, daughter of Hussey Crespigny Vivian, 3rd Baron Vivian. He proposed marriage to her two days later, and they married in the private chapel of Buckingham Palace on July 11, 1905. They had four children together.

Father:

John Richard Haig

Mother:

Rachel Haig

Spouse:

Dorothy Maud (née Vivian), Countess Haig

(1879-1939)

The Hon. Dorothy Maud Vivian was the daughter of 3rd Baron Vivian and his wife Louisa Alice Duff, and a maid of honour to Queen Alexandra. She met Douglas Haig while he was a guest of King Edward VII at Windsor Castle. They married in the private chapel at Buckingham Palace in July 1905. During the First World War Countess Haig worked with the Red Cross, and was appointed a Lady of Grace of St John of Jerusalem. Her biography of her husband, The Man I Knew, was published in 1936.

Daughter:

Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Haig

(1907-1997)

Lady Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Haig married the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper in 1954, becoming Lady Dacre in 1979 when he was created a Life Peer.

Daughter:

Victoria Doris Rachel Haig

(1908-1993)

Son:

George Haig, 2nd Earl Haig

(March 15, 1918 - July 9, 2009)

George Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig, 2nd Earl Haig, was a British artist and peer who succeeded to the earldom of Haig on 29 January 1928, at the age of nine upon the death of his father.

Haig was involved with charities that provided for ex-servicemen founded by his father. He was chairman of the British Legion in Scotland from 1962 to 1965 and president of the Earl Haig Fund from 1980 to 1986.

Daughter:

Irene Astor, Baroness Astor of Hever

(October 7, 1919 - August 12, 2001)

Irene Astor, Baroness Astor of Hever was an English philanthropist and member of the Astor family. Her philanthropic contributions included being chairman of the Sunshine Fund for Blind Children from 1947 to 1989, during which she raised over £14 million and she served as vice president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind from 1977 to her death in 2001.

References

• The Man I Knew A book by Field Marshal's spouse, Dorothy Maud
  1936
• Douglas Haig: Defeat Into Victory A book by Major Gordon Corrigan
  2016
• Douglas Haig As I Knew Him First published in 1966, Douglas Haig as I Knew Him is a memoir by G.S. Duncan, a Church of Scotland minister with whom Haig felt such an affinity that he had him transferred to GCHQ.
  1966
• Douglas Haig: From the Somme to Victory Drawing on previously unknown private letters and new scholarship unavailable when The Chief was first published, eminent First World War historian Gary Sheffield reassesses Haig’s reputation, assessing his critical role in preparing the army for war.
  2016
• Douglas Haig and the First World War Major new biography of one of the most controversial commanders in British military history by J. P. Harris.
  2008
• The Good Soldier: The Biography of Douglas Haig Haig has frequently been presented as a commander who sent his troops to slaughter in vast numbers at the Somme in 1916 and at Passchendaele the following year. The Good Soldier by Gary Mead re-examines Haig's record in these battles and presents his predicament with a fresh eye.
  2007
• Douglas Haig, 1861-1928 A book by Gerard J. De Groot
  1988
• Douglas Haig: The Educated Soldier The history of the Western Front and the First World War is one of battles of attrition against an entrenched enemy, with terrible casualties suffered by both sides in some of the worst fighting ever. In this history by John Terraine the picture has emerged of British generals remote and detached from the reality of the trenches who repeatedly sent their men to die in pointless attacks against the enemy.
  1963