Page 47 - They Also Served

16
Douglas Haig 1886.
From the Haig whisky distillery family,
Douglas Haig was born in Edinburgh
on 19th June 1861. Educated at Clifton
College, he studied at Brasenose College,
Oxford. He was considerably older
(and better educated) than most of his
peers at Sandhurst, where he became
the senior under-officer before being
commissioned into the 7th (Queen’s
Own) Hussars in 1885. After graduating
from Staff College in 1896, he served in
the Sudan campaign. In one incident, he rode, under heavy fire, to rescue a fallen Egyptian soldier; many observers believed he should have been awarded the Victoria Cross. Commanding a cavalry squadron, he fought in the Battle of Omdurman in 1898 alongside another Sandhurst alumnus, Lieutenant Winston Churchill.
During the Boer War, Haig worked for another cavalry officer, John French. Towards the end of the war, he commanded the 17th Lancers and finished the conflict as a lieutenant-colonel, having been MiD four times. His war service won him rapid, if belated, promotion (he was a captain until he was 37) and, in 1904, he became the youngest major-general in the army. His skill as an administrator saw him working on the modernisation of the army and the reorganisation of the territorial and militia (reserve) forces. However, field appointments eluded him, with the exception of Aldershot Command, where he was decisively beaten in the Manoeuvres of 1912 by an opponent who used the brand new and untried aircraft to spot Haig’s formations.
Haig, promoted to general in November, commanded the 1st Corps during the fierce fighting of 1914. During the campaign, and perhaps remembering his humiliation of 1912, he took a great interest in the potential of the fledgling RFC. In 1915, further setbacks at Loos and Neuve Chapelle, together with some well-placed criticism from Haig, saw John French sacked, and his one-time protégé became commander of the BEF in December 1915. Following months of planning, the new British and French offensive began on 1st July on the Somme. On the first day, the British sustained 57,000 casualties. The battle descended into a grinding stalemate and was called off in November. Nevertheless, Haig was promoted to field marshal on New Year’s Day, 1917.
41