[111], Haig replaces French[edit] The reserves now became a stick with which to beat French, who by now was talking of making peace before "England was ruined". She was a daughter of Hussey Crespigny Vivian and Louisa Duff. [162], Northcliffe also warned Haig's aide Philip Sassoon that changes were required: "Sir Douglas is regarded with affection in the army, but everywhere people remark that he is surrounded by incompetents". At this time a great deal of the energies of the most senior British generals were taken up with the question of whether cavalry should still be trained to charge with sword and lance (the view of French and Haig) as well as using horses for mobility then fighting dismounted with firearms. Gary Sheffield stated that although Terraine's arguments about Haig have been much attacked over forty years, Terraine's thesis "has yet to be demolished". His father John Richard Haig — an alcoholic — was said to be "in trade", though as head of the family's successful Haig & Haigwhisky distillery, he had an income of £10,000 per year (£1,160,000 in 2018), an enormous amount at the time. Over lunch with the King and Kitchener, Haig remarked that the best time to sack French would have been after the retreat to the Marne; it was agreed that the men would correspond in confidence and in response to the King's joke that this was inviting Haig to "sneak" like a schoolboy, Kitchener replied that "we are past schoolboy's age". Cavalry played a leading role in this stage of the war, including the relief of Kimberley (15 February 1900), which featured a spectacular British cavalry charge at Klip Drift. The Cavalry Division was disbanded (November 1900) and French, with Haig still his chief of staff, was put in charge of an all-arms force policing the Johannesburg area, later trying to capture the Boer leader de Wet around Bloemfontein. At dinner afterwards Haig abandoned his prepared text, and although he wrote that his remarks were "well received" Charteris recorded that they were "unintelligible and unbearably dull" and that the visiting dignitaries fell asleep. However, the typed version of Haig's diary, although fuller, does not specifically contradict the handwritten original, and it has been suggested that Haig either needed to reconcile himself psychologically to the need to accept a French superior or else was simply letting off steam and wanted to give himself the credit he felt he deserved. [84], In his much-criticised memoirs 1914, French later claimed that Haig had wanted to postpone sending the BEF, which may be partly true, in view of what Haig had written to Haldane at the time. In August 1906 Haig was appointed Director of Military Training on the General Staff at the War Office. The two men met again in London (14 July), whilst Haig was receiving his GCB (awarded on French's recommendation after Neuve Chapelle) from the King, who also complained to him about French. During the second half of 1917, Haig conducted an offensive at Passchendaele (the 3rd Battle of Ypres). Haig thought Robertson (who had begun his military career as a private) egotistical, coarse, power-crazed and not "a gentleman" and was unhappy at the way Robertson had allowed divisions to be diverted to other fronts, even though Robertson had in fact fought to keep such diversions to a minimum. He was one of the best young horsemen at Oxford and quickly found his way into the University polo team. Haig was making similar complaints about Lloyd George, whom he privately compared to the Germans accusing the Allies of atrocities, of which they were guilty. French's Division took part in the capture of Bloemfontein (13 March 1900) and then Pretoria (5 June 1900). However, Haig did pass his exams at Oxford. Haig thought that Lloyd George's political position was weak and he would not last another six weeks (this was a false prediction, although Lloyd George did not have full freedom of action in a coalition government, his personal drive and appeal to certain sections of the public made him indispensable as Prime Minister). Kitchener, who had been invited to tour the French Army (16–19 August) listened sympathetically to Joffre's suggestion that in future Joffre should set the size, dates and objectives of British offensives, although he only agreed for the Loos attack for the moment. [120], The attack failed in the north against the Hohenzollern Redoubt but broke through the German first line in the centre (Loos and Hill 70). [85] Hankey's notes of the meeting record that Haig suggested delaying or sending smaller forces, but was willing to send forces if France was in danger of defeat or if France wanted them (which it did). Douglas Haig, left, the Arizona man who sold ammunition to the Route 91 Harvest festival gunman, leaves the Lloyd George U.S. This battle slowed the German army's advance. [140] On the first day the British penetrated 5 miles (8.0 km) on a 6 miles (9.7 km) front with only 4,000 casualties, limited on the first day by blown bridges and the shortness of the November day. Travers also criticised Haig and enemy commanders for (in Travers' opinion) seeing battle as perfectly organised and something that could be planned perfectly, ignoring the concept of fog of war and confusion in battle. As the 17th Lancers were in South Africa at the time Haig was able to combine that command with that of his own column. A man who gained his ends by trickery of a kind that was not merely immoral but criminal. [144], Some of the gains (after the church bells had been rung in England in celebration) were retaken after 30 November, when the Germans made their first counter-offensive against the British since 1914, using new sturmtruppen tactics. [137] This round of planning ended with a sharp exchange of letters with the Cabinet, Haig rebuked them for interfering in military matters and declared that "I am responsible for the efficiency of the Armies in France". Winter quoted, out of context, Edmonds' advice to his researchers to write a draft narrative first, then invite interviewees to comment over lunch: Andrew Green, in his study of the Official History, wrote that this was done deliberately, for memories to be jogged by the draft narrative and that senior officers were more likely to be frank if approached informally. The following day 26 August, Horace Smith-Dorrien's II Corps engaged the enemy in the Battle of Le Cateau, which was unsupported by Haig. In the event an Indian Corps would serve on the Western Front early in the conflict, and Indian troops were also used in comparatively small formations the Middle East. A plan he envisaged for mobilising the Indian army to send to Europe in the event of war there was vetoed by Viceroy Lord Hardinge. Haig was one of the chief inspirations for the character of Herbert Curzon in C. S. Forester's novel The General, a sharp satire of the mentality of old-school British officers in the Great War. He was then appointed Inspector-General of Cavalry in British India (he would have preferred command of the cavalry brigade at Aldershot, where French was now General Officer Commanding (GOC)), but had first to spend a year on garrison duty at Edinburgh until the previous incumbent completed his term). Earl Haig Secondary School in Willowdale, Ontario, was named after Lord Haig in 1928. He was involved in the creation of the Royal British Legion, which he was president of until his death and was chairman of the United Services Fund from 1921 until his death. Haig's support amongst the Army, the public and many politicians made this impossible and a plan that Haig be "promoted" to a sinecure, as generalissimo of British forces (similar to what had been done to Joffre at the end of 1916) was scotched when Lord Derby threatened resignation. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/south_of_scotland/5133100.stm Milner thought Haig's stance "desperately stupid", although Haig had a point that control of reserves by a committee was not necessarily sensible. Douglas Haig (1861-1928) commander in chief of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. [181], Haig inspected Fifth Army (7–9 March) and noted widespread concerns, which he shared, at lack of reserves – he released one division from Flanders to Fifth Army and deployed another, under GHQ control, to the rear of Fifth Army. Our Journals will become an online collection of this valuable ancestry information to honour your Veteran. Haig was irritated by Sir John French (influenced by Henry Wilson into putting his faith in a French thrust up from the Ardennes) who was only concerned with the three German corps in front of the BEF at Mons and who ignored intelligence reports of German forces streaming westwards from Brussels, threatening an encirclement from the British left. The French Commander-in-Chief, Pétain and Haig met on 23 March (4pm), and Petain stressed the need for Gough's Fifth Army to keep in touch with Pelle's French V Corps on its right. He was the senior commander of the British forces in France from 1915 until the end of the war. His funeral in 1928 was a huge state occasion. A retreat on the ports does not seem to have been decided until some days after 21 March. Apparent from the campaigns in which he served. The BEF landed in France on 14 August and advanced into Belgium, where French intended to meet General Lanrezac's French Fifth Army at Charleroi. This was just in time, as it later turned out that Petain at Verdun was warning the French government that the "game was up" unless the British attacked. Douglas Haig Windsor Obituary. You can view the full Haig family tree below showing the links between the Haigs, Steins and Jamesons. He was one of 11 children. Haig appeared as himself in the films Under Four Flags (1918) and Remembrance (1927). Family life. Haig was so angry at this claim, that he asked Cabinet Secretary Maurice Hankey to correct French's "inaccuracies". Both of Haig's parents died by the time he was eighteen. [145] Haig took responsibil. [14] His father John Haig—an irascible alcoholic—was middle class ("in trade"), and as head of the family's successful Haig & Haig whisky distillery had an income of £10,000 per year, an enormous amount at the time. Haig demanded a correction of French's "inaccuracies" about the availability of the reserve, whereupon French ordered Haig to cease all correspondence on this matter, although he offered to let Haig see the covering letter he was sending to London in his report but French's fate was sealed. Although Sir John French praised Haig's leadership of his corps, Haig was privately contemptuous of French's overconfidence prior to Mons and excessive caution thereafter. [54] Throughout the war Haig's sister Henrietta had been lobbying Evelyn Wood for her brother to have command of a cavalry regiment of his own when the war was over. [80], In the Army Manoeuvres of 1912 he was decisively beaten by Sir James Grierson despite having the odds in his favour, because of Grierson's superior use of air reconnaissance. He complained privately of French unreliability and lack of fighting competence, a complaint which he would keep up for the next four years. John Terraine, writing of the "shrill venom" with which Lloyd George sought to "exculpate himself", also found some "faint stirring of consciousness" of how he had destroyed trust between politicians and soldiers by the Nivelle Affair (making it impossible for Robertson to raise his concerns about the Battle of Passchendaele with the Prime Minister) and called the memoirs "a document as shabby as his behaviour at Calais".[264]. A third major German offensive against the French on the Aisne in May overwhelmed a British corps which had been sent there to refit after Michael. The King also discussed the matter with Haig over dinner on a visit to the front (24 October). [294], In the 1989 BBC comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth, Haig, played by Geoffrey Palmer, makes an appearance in the final episode. The offensive spirit of the infantry, quality of the soldier, rapid rifle fire and the idea of the soldier being the most important aspect of the battlefield prevailed. Haig was intolerant of what he regarded as old-fashioned opinion and not good at negotiating with strangers. Indeed, one powerful legacy of Haig's performance is the conviction among the imaginative and intelligent today of the unredeemable defectiveness of all civil and military leaders. Some historians, like Bourne and Bond, regard this as too harsh. [131] Haig and Kiggell met Joffre and his chief of staff de Castelnau at Chantilly (14 February). [43] As in the Sudan, Haig continued to be sceptical of the importance of artillery, basing his opinions on interviews with enemy prisoners. [224] However, once Germany had accepted the strict armistice terms, Haig suggested Germany be split into independent states at the peace treaty. Casualties were around 12,000 on each side. He attributed his own "distrust of his capacity to fill such an immense position" to Haig's lack of a clear grasp even of the Western Front (likening him to "the blind King of Bohemia at Crecy"), let alone the needs of other fronts and his inability, given his preference for being surrounded by courteous "gentlemen", to select good advisers. [179] Allied intelligence did not fall for German deceptions that they might attack in Italy or the Balkans, but thought that the main attack might fall in the Cambrai-St Quentin (Third Army) sector. [86] After six days of bickering between British and French generals, I Corps was relieved by French troops; Haig being very suspicious of the pro-French sympathies of Henry Wilson. [112] Haig was increasingly irritated by French's changes of orders and mercurial changes of mood as to the length of the war, which French now expected to last into 1916. chief staff officer) of French's brigade-sized force as it was sent off to the Boer War. Whilst the Germans attacked Smith-Dorrien at the Second Battle of Ypres (April), new Allied offensives were planned by the French at Vimy and by Haig at Aubers Ridge (9 May). [198], Wilson's diary for their meeting on 25 March (11am) describes Haig as "cowed" and saying that unless the French sent more help the BEF was beaten and "it would be better to make peace on any terms we could". Haig claimed in his diary that a proposal that he be sent to report on the Gallipoli bridgehead, was shelved because of the imminence of French's removal. Haig wanted to delay until 15 August, to allow for more training and more artillery to be available. Haig thought that Wilson, besides being too pro-French, had "no military knowledge" and recommended Quarter-Master General "Wully" Robertson for the vacancy. As was standard policy at that time, Haig's actions included burning farms (homesteads, crops and livestock included) as part of the well known British scorched earth policy as well as rounding up Boer women and children into concentration camps. 298–330, 406–410. Alexandra Henrietta Louisa Haig (9 March 1907—1997); Lady Alexandra Haig from 1919 until marriage; Baroness Dacre of Glanton from marriage in 1954, Victoria Doris Rachel Haig (7 November 1908—1993); Lady Victoria Haig from 1919; Lady Victoria Montagu-Douglas-Scott from marriage in 1929 (divorced 1951), George Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig (15 March 1918—10 July 2009); Viscount Dawick from 1919; 2nd Earl Haig from 1928, Lady Irene Violet Freesia Janet Augustia Haig (7 October 1919—2001); Baroness Astor of Hever from marriage in 1971. After ceasing active service, he devoted the rest of his life to the welfare of ex-servicemen, travelling throughout the British Empire to promote their interests. However, he accepted that the War Cabinet must ultimately make the decision, and according to Lloyd George "put up no fight for Robertson" and was contemptuous of Derby's threats to resign – he persuaded him not to do so after Robertson was pushed out. If this happened the million or so German troops located on the Eastern Front would be transferred to the west by late 1917 or early 1918. The first day objective was the high ground around Bourlon Wood and Haig was to review progress after 48 hours. He was commander during the Battle of the Somme, the battle with one of the highest casualties in British military history, the Third Battle of Ypres and the Hundred Days Offensive, which led to the armistice in 1918. Haig again told him that French should have been sacked in August 1914. From 1 July to 18 November 1916, Haig directed the British portion of the Battle of the Somme. During the war, Haig suffered from toothache and sent for a Parisian dentist. 91 at Leven, Fife, taking the first and second degrees of Freemasonry. Ironically these two German offensives swept over the very ground (the Somme and Passchendaele respectively) which Haig's own offensives had gained at such cost in previous years. The plan had been for him to train and take command of an Egyptian cavalry squadron, but this did not happen as Kitchener did not want a command reshuffle with combat imminent. On 25 August the French commander Joseph Joffre ordered his forces to retreat to the Marne, which compelled the BEF to further withdraw. [130] Lloyd George, who had become Prime Minister in December 1916, infuriated Haig and Robertson by placing the BEF under the command of the new French Commander-in-Chief Robert Nivelle, at a stormy conference at Calais. [71], Haig's skills at administration and organising training and inspections were better employed in setting up an Expeditionary Force of 120,000 men (6 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry – the force which would be deployed to France in 1914) in 1907. [140] The plan was to trap German troops between the River Sensee and Canal du Nord, with the cavalry to seize the St Quentin Canal crossings, then exploit north-east. [57] Haldane later wrote that Haig had "a first rate general staff mind" and "gave invaluable advice"[58] Haig in turn would later dedicate a volume of his despatches to Haldane, who by then had been hounded out of office for alleged pro-German sympathies in 1915. Robertson had arrived at Haig's Headquarters with orders (signed by the Secretary of State for War) for these officers' dismissal in his pocket in case Haig refused to do as he was asked. He was not an aristocrat by birth, or even landed gentry. Upon the reorganization of the Hurlingham Polo Committee in May 1914, Haig was elected Chairman, and he worthily filled that office until 1922, together with that of President of the Army Polo Committee. Haig gained the title of the butcher of the Somme after the end of World War One, due to the indescribable amount of casualties and deaths that took place. [78] In India he had hoped to develop the Indian General Staff as part of the greater Imperial General Staff, and to organise despatch of Indian troops to a future European War. Historical records and family trees related to Douglas Malloch. This battle slowed the German army's advance. [128], Portrait of Haig at General Headquarters, France, by Sir William Orpen, May 1917 On 1 January 1917, Haig was made a field marshal. The failure of the Nivelle Offensive in April 1917 (which Haig had been required to support with a British offensive by Allenby's Third Army at Arras), and subsequent French mutiny and political crisis, discredited Lloyd George's plans for Anglo-French co-operation for the time being. [222] When the Third and Fourth Armies reached the Hindenburg Line (18 September) Haig received a congratulatory note from Wilson saying "you must be a famous general", to which he replied that he was not (as this would have meant currying favour with Repington and the Northcliffe Press) but "we have a number of very capable generals". He has come to symbolise, fairly or unfairly – the popular impression of bungling generals responsible for sending troops […] Travers 1987) have criticised Camberley for its old-fashioned curriculum, which especially influenced Haig, as he was an absorber of doctrine rather than an original thinker. The time and place of the battle had been decided by the French, who were attempting to relieve the pressure on the French Army at Verdun. Although the American Civil War was studied, the emphasis was on Stonewall Jackson's mobile campaign in the Shenandoah Valley, rather than on the more attritional nature of that war. The name, Haig, occurred in many references, and from time to time, it was spelt Haig, Haigh, Hague, Hait, Haight, Hate, Haga and others. [67] Haldane later wrote that Haig had "a first rate general staff mind" and "gave invaluable advice"[68] Haig in turn would later dedicate a volume of his despatches to Haldane, who by then had been hounded out of office for alleged pro-German sympathies in 1915. [106][107] Attacks (at Festubert, 15–25 May) as a diversion, gained 1,100 yards (1,000 m) over a front of 4,400 yards (4,000 m), with 16,000 British casualties to around 6,600 German losses. Formal orders were issued to Fifth Army to maintain contact with Third Army to their north and the French to their south. [335] In August 1920, the Great Central Railway gave the name Earl Haig to one of their newly built 4-6-0 express passenger locomotives, no. He was appointed GOC Aldershot Command from 1912 to 1914 and Aide-de-Camp to King George V in 1914. As the 17th Lancers were in South Africa at the time Haig was able to combine that command with that of his own column. Please accept Echovita’s sincere condolences. He was a British war hero like Isaac Brock. Popular "media opinion" failed to grasp that under Haig, the British Army adopted a very modern style of war in 1918, something that was very different from 1914, 1916, or even 1917. There were also enquiries by a War Office Committee and by General Smuts on behalf of the War Cabinet. Alan Douglas Haig Day was 10 years old when Great Depression: In a State of the Union message, U.S. President Herbert Hoover proposes a $150 million (equivalent to $2,197,000,000 in 2017) public works program to help generate jobs and stimulate the economy. [192], This is one of the occasions where doubt has been cast on the authenticity of Haig's diary. [269] Cavalry represented less than three percent of the BEF in France by September 1916, whilst the British were the most mechanised force in the world by 1918, supported by the world's largest air force. [262], Lloyd George pulled fewer punches in his War Memoirs, published in 1936 when Haig was dead and Lloyd George was no longer a major political player. These claims were rejected by a number of British and Australian historians, including Robin Prior and Correlli Barnett. [7][8][9] He was nicknamed "Butcher Haig" for the two million British casualties endured under his command. On July 11, 1905, Haig married Dorothy Maud Vivian, daughter of Baron Hussey Vivian. Douglas's relationship status is single. His speech angered several leading politicians, Carson repudiated it and Derby assured Haig of his backing. [114] Matters had been delayed as Kitchener was away on an inspection tour of the Mediterranean and French was sick in bed. Haig's poor public speaking skills aside, the manoeuvres were thought to have shown the reformed army efficient. [172], At the Supreme War Council at Versailles (29 January) Haig and Petain complained of shortage of troops, but Haig's political credibility was so low that Hankey wrote that they "made asses of themselves". Biographers Robin Prior and Trevor Wilson, writing in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) state that: Haig has been criticised for the high casualties in British offensives, but it has been argued by historians like John Terraine that this was largely a function of the size of the battles, as British forces engaged the main body of the German Army on the Western Front after 1916. 194515581, citing Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, Matraville, Randwick City, New South Wales, Australia ; Maintained by Heather J. Haig predicted that the war would last several years and that an army of a million men, trained by officers and NCOs withdrawn from the BEF, would be needed. During the second half of 1917, Haig conducted an offensive at Passchendaele (the Third Battle of Ypres). [249] The cortege was accompanied by five guards of honour at the slow march, with reversed arms and muffled drums: two officers and fifty other ranks from each branch of the British armed forces (Royal Navy, the Irish Guards, and the Royal Air Force); fifty men of the 1st French Army Corps; and 16 men from the Belgian Regiment of Grenadiers. Wilson claimed that Haig suggested Petain be appointed Allied generalissimo (which is not consistent with Haig's later claim that Petain was unwilling to help the British) and that he proposed Foch over Haig's objections. Subsequent relations between the two men were not to be so cordial. [37] Haig impressed the Chief Instructor, Lt-Col G. F. R. Henderson, and completed the course, leaving in 1897. Allied attacks in the west were needed to take pressure off the Russians, who were being flung out of Poland (after the Fall of Warsaw, 5 August). Other historians One of Haig's defenders was the military historian John Terraine, who published a biography of Haig (The Educated Soldier) in 1963, in which Haig was portrayed as a "Great Captain" of the calibre of the Duke of Marlborough or the Duke of Wellington. At Robertson's suggestion, Haig received Kitchener at his HQ (8 July – despite French's attempt to block the meeting), where they shared their concerns about French. There was also argument over the placement of the reserve, XI Corps (Haking) with the 21st and 24th dvisions (inexperienced New Army divisions), which Haig wanted close to the front. The first of his objectives was to commit a large contingent the German Army to Belgian Flanders, away from the Aisne sector in France, where the aforementioned mutiny was worst, in order to give the French time to recover. Douglas Haig was a British commander who was born in Edinburgh on June 19, 1861. [116] Haig pushed for Aubers Ridge again (22 July) – French at first agreed until dissuaded by Foch (29 July), who felt that only a British attack at Loos would pull in enough German reserves to allow the French to take Vimy Ridge. Here is Douglas Haig Windsor’s obituary. Haig returned to Britain in 1906 as the Director of Military Training on the General Staff at the War Office. [86] During a royal inspection of Aldershot (11 August), Haig told the King that he had "grave doubts" about the evenness of French's temper and military knowledge. [62], Haig's war service had earned him belated but rapid promotion: having been a captain until the relatively advanced age of thirty-seven, by 1904 he had become the youngest major-general in the British Army at that time.
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