42 mins
An eminent War Scot
COVER
Statue of Earl Douglas Haig
FEW would doubt that Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig was a most eminent Scot in Great War London and in the years immediately following the Armistice. He was an elder at London: St Columba’s and after this death in 1928 his coffin lay in the church for three days while mourners processed past. The procession left St Columba’s for the state funeral at Westminster Abbey.
Sir Douglas Haig commanded the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) from December 10 1915 to April 2 1919. After the war he spent the remaining years of his life working in the interests of those who had returned from the war. In this he was assisted by Dorothy, Lady Haig. Doris, as she was known, made a powerful and lasting contribution in her own right, until her death in 1939.
In July 1919, Haig gave evidence to the Parliamentary Select Sub-Committee on Pensions on provision for disabled veterans and war widows. He sought to ensure that they received an adequate income from the state and that they themselves should support each other. He wanted the different veteran support groups to merge. This led to the formation of the Royal British Legion in 1921. Haig became President of the Legion and remained so until his death on January 28 1928. As he intended, the Legion continued both to assist individual veterans and facilitate a re-reation of the comradeship that had flourished in the trenches. The Haig Fund poppy appeal became an established feature of national life.
In 1921 Haig, along with a coachman, was ordained as an elder at St Columba’s Church.
Cecil Fleming, son of the former minister the Rev Archibald Fleming, later noted that ‘both men were of equally humble mind and it was never determined whether the great Field Marshal was prouder of standing next to the coachman or the coachman standing next to the Field Marshal.’ During this period of his life, Haig became an honorary member of London’s Caledonian Club. On July 26 1923, now a Vice President, Haig was asked to dedicate the Club’s war memorial.
He did so and spoke on the consequences of going to war unprepared, noting that ‘the men who die to hold the line while guns are being made and soldiers trained to use them, can never be replaced.’
Douglas Haig was born in Edinburgh on June 19 1865. An advertising handout for Haig’ s Whisky, of August 1924, is headed ‘‘D’ye Ken John Haig?’ This was a reference to his father’s Fife based whisky firm. It describes Haig Whisky as ‘the best that money can buy.’ Haig attended Oxford University and on leaving decided not to make his career in the family firm. Instead, he elected to start Army officer training at the Royal Military College Sandhurst. He saw service in India and as a commissioned lieutenant in the 7th Queen’s Own Hussars. He was promoted to Captain in 1899 and commanded a squadron of cavalry at the battle of Omdurman in the 1898 Sudan War. A further promotion to Major followed, as he served under John French in the Boer War. Afterwards he returned to India as Inspector General of Cavalry.
Douglas Haig left India on leave to England in 1905 and proposed to Miss Dorothy Vivian (known as Doris), within a week of meeting her at Windsor. King George V asked him what he meant by ‘coming to my house and stealing one of the Queen’s Maids of Honour.’ Then he told Doris that she ‘must do nothing to interfere with the work of my best and most capable general.’ The King never wavered in that opinion of Haig. The marriage took place in the private chapel in Buckingham Palace.
The couple returned together to India, but the following year Haig was appointed to Director of Military Training at the War Office. The collaboration between two London Scots – Haig and the War Minister R B Haldane – established the basis for how the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) would go to war in 1914. They established the operational workings of a new General Stafffand introduced a Territorial Army reserve force. As war came on August 4 1914, Haig was serving as General Officer Commanding at Aldershot, responsible for the 1st and 2nd Infantry Divisions and the 1 Cavalry Brigade.
The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was deployed in Belgium under the command of Field Marshal Sir John French and Haig held the rank of Lieutenant General, in charge of 1 Corps.
Haig’s comments, in his diary are telling, as he indicates growing lack of confidence in French’s fitness for command, during the retreat from Mons. However, from September 6, what the historian Gary Sheffield has described as the ‘strategic initiative’ passed to the British and French armies. The counter offensive, at the river Marne, ensured the failure of Germany’s Schlieffen Plan. Stalemate and years of trench warfare followed right across the Western Front.
Haig launched the great offensive at the Somme on July 1 1916. With a devastating number of casualties, the historian John Keegan noted that this was ‘the worst day in Britain’s military history’. He went on to describe the Somme offensive ‘as appearing to drift away in an autumn of frustration and a winter of stalemate.’ However, he acknowledged that this wasn’t quite the case. The introduction of tanks and the development of new tactics such as the creeping barrage, led to the balance of advantage shifting from defence to attack.
Haig had a keen interest in new technologies and battle tactics that would eventually help him end the stalemate.
On March 21 1918 the Germans launched their Spring Offensive, Operation Michael.
The danger this posed can be deduced from the tone of Haig’s special order of the day issued on April 1 1918. It read: ‘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 alike depend upon the conduct of each one of us at this critical moment.’
Yet the Allies were not defeated, though for a time, the issue of battle hung in the balance. On July 18 the French army effected a successful counteroffensive on the river Marne. This marked the end of the period of crisis. What followed was by far the greatest victory in British military history and it was achieved under the inspired leadership of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig. On August 8 1918 Haig’s Army attacked at Amiens achieving complete surprise and advancing up to eight miles. This was the first in a series of nine battles that were to end the war. On September 28, the allies advanced on the strongest of all German defensive positions, the Hindenburg line. The advance continued until November 11.
David Lloyd George, Prime Minister from December 1916 until October 1922, published his ‘War Memoirs’ in the 1930s.
As Prime Minister, he had regular meetings with Sir Douglas in London and in France.
The aims of the two men were not quite the same. Both wanted to win but while Haig had no other objective, Lloyd George had to consider the attitudes of voters and his fellow Parliamentarians. In a chapter reflecting on the contents of Haig’s own diaries, Lloyd George concludes that he thought ‘Douglas Haig was intellectually and temperamentally unequal to the command of an army of millions fighting battles on fields that were invisible to any Commander’.
Over one million young men from Britain and her Empire had been killed in the conflict.
Lloyd George had been Prime Minister for nearly two years and wanted to avoid blame for deaths on the scale experienced at the battles of the Somme and Passchendaele.
He did therefore, quite explicitly, lay the responsibility on Haig as Army Commander.
However, as the centenary of the Armistice has approached, military historians have taken a more balanced view of Haig’s command. By setting any political considerations aside, they can make more objective judgements on the strategies he followed and the choices he made.
Peebles born, Malcolm Noble served as a. London secondary school Headmaster for 19 years. He is currently Chairman of the Royal Caledonian Education Trust, this year’s President of the Caledonian Society of London and a Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Suffolk. He is a member of the Scots in Great War London planning group and author of two chapters in the commemorative book. Malcolm is a member of London: St Columba’s.
Visit http://www.scotsingreatwar.london for more information and to buy the commemorative book marking the role of Scots in London during the First World War.
This article appears in the November 2018 Issue of Life and Work
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