Douglas Haig, the son of John Haig, the head of the successful whisky distilling company, was born in Edinburgh in 1861. After obtaining a degree at Brasenose College he went to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst. After he completed his training Haig was commissioned into the 7th Hussars.
Haig was sent to India with his regiment in 1886 and while there worked
his way through the ranks. Haig experienced active service in the
Sudan
(1898) and the
Boer War
(1899-1902), where he served under Major-General
Sir John French.
Promoted to the rank of colonel, Haig returned to India where he served
in a variety of administrative posts under
Lord Kitchener.
When Haig became major-general he was the youngest officer of that rank
in the British Army.
In 1906 Haig took up the important post at the War Office as Director of
Military Training. He worked closely with
R. B. Haldane,
the Secretary of State for War, to establish a general staff and a
territorial army. It was also Haig's responsibility to organize a
British Expeditionary Force
(BEF) to be deployed in time of war.
In 1914 Haig obtained the rank of Lieutenant General and was given
command over the 1st Army Corps of the
British Expeditionary Force
(BEF) in France and Belgium. Haig commanded his forces at
Mons
and was praised for his
Ypres
campaign in 1914. Later in the same year, Haig was promoted to full
general and was given command of the recently enlarged BEF, under the
supreme command of General
Sir John French.
In December 1915, Haig was appointed commander in chief of the BEF. Haig
now become under extreme pressure from the French to produce a diversion
from
Verdun.
The first
Battle of the Somme
was fought from July to November 1916. In that time Allied forces
advanced 12km and suffered 420,000 British and 200,000 French
casualties.
In 1918 Haig took charge of the successful British advances on the
Western Front
which led to an Allied victory later that year. After the war Haig's
management of the major campaigns, notably on the
Somme
in 1916, and at
Passchendaele
in 1917, was criticized by
David Lloyd George,
the British prime minister. Some military historians have claimed that
Haig tactics were deeply flawed. Others have defended his actions and
claimed that his approach was largely determined by French demands for
continuous action at that part of the
Western Front.
After the war Haig was posted as commander in chief of home forces until his retirement in 1921. Haig, who was granted £100,000 by the British government, devoted the rest of his life to the welfare of ex-servicemen via the Royal British Legion. He was made Earl Haig in 1919 and then Baron Haig of Bemersyde in 1921.
Douglas Haig died on 29th January 1928
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