Douglas Haig

Born June 19, 1861, in Edinburgh; died Jan. 29, 1928, in London. British field marshal (1917). Earl (1919).

Haig graduated from the military academy at Sandhurst in 1884. He joined the cavalry in 1885 and served in the Sudan expedition of 1898 and the Boer War (1899–1902). From 1903 to 1906 he served as inspector general of cavalry in India, and from 1909 to 1912 he was chief of staff of the Anglo-Indian Army. From 1912 to 1914 he was in command of the military training center at Aldershot. At the beginning of World War I, Haig was commander of the British First Army Corps; he became commander of the British First Army in early 1915 and commander of the British Expeditionary Force in France in December 1915. After the war, he commanded the home forces (1919–20). Haig united various veterans’ organizations into the British Legion.