Object of the Month - August 2011

Given that August is a month where a lot of people might be on holiday, we thought you might need a passport!

And what better passport to give you than that belonging to the Commander in Chief!

Yes, this is Field Marshal Douglas Earl Haig of Bemersyde's passport, issued to him in 1921 for a visit to South Africa. Seems even a Field Marshal needed a passport.

This rather unusual item is on display in the Museum of Edinburgh, located in Huntly House on the Canongate. The museum has a large collection of artefacts relating to Douglas Haig, and is well worth a visit.

Viscount Haldane - Who's Who in Scottish Military History

Today is the 155th anniversary of the birth of the politician Viscount Haldane. The Edinburgh born and bred MP came from a distinguished family of Perthshire soldiers and sailors, but he himself never served in the armed forces. He was a tubby intellectual once described as a speaking penguin. A Renaissance man not cut out for military life.

He is our Who’s Who in Scottish Military History today because in 1907 he was responsible for the Acts which transformed the British Army and prepared it for the First World War. His reforms also changed the Scottish Volunteer regiments into the Territorial Force. It was his reforms which led to the creation of two of Scotland’s most famous volunteer units; the Lowland Division and the Highland Division. They would achieve undying fame in two world wars as the 51st and 52nd Divisions and the name still lives on today in the 6th and 7th battalions of the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

Richard Haldane was born in 1856 in Charlotte square in Edinburgh, just round the corner from where Douglas Haig was born in 1860. Coincidentally the two would work closely together in the Edwardian War Office when Haldane was Secretary of State for War and Haig was a general and the Director of Staff Duties.

I’ll not go into detail of the life of Haldane in the years before 1905 because this is about Haldane the army reformer, not Haldane the politician.

He was appointed Secretary of State for War, the minister responsible for the army, in December 1905. He had been aware of the short-comings of the army since the 2nd Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The Empire had won but had been humiliated on many occasions by the mostly volunteer Boer army. Haldane knew he needed to shake up the demoralised army from top to bottom. As far back as 1901 he stated he wanted ‘a comparatively small Army - one extremely efficacious and capable for foreign service’, but not one able to ‘compete with the enormous armaments of Europe’. Four years later he was in a position to put his theory into practice.

Almost immediately he was forced to create the British Expeditionary Force. Secret negotiations between the British and French governments in January 1906 committed Britain to sending an army to France in the event of a European War. Haldane created a BEF of six infantry divisions and one cavalry division out of the regular army troops garrisoned in the UK. Each infantry battalion, artillery battery, medical corps ambulance and engineer squadron was allocated to a brigade and division; and would be ready for war within a matter of days.

He then wanted to improve training. This was when he first came into contact with General Douglas Haig who was working as Director of Staff Duties at the War Office at the time. With Haldane’s help in quashing objections from other generals, Haig produced two volumes of the Field Service Regulations. For the first time the army had one set of manuals which covered the training and organisation of all branches of the army, including front line and line of communications troops. When war came all units would now be singing from the same hymn sheet.

Haldane’s next major reform was the creation of the Territorial Force. Haldane saw that the rifle volunteers formed in the 1850s and 1860s to defend Britain against French invasion could be reorganised into brigades and divisions to defend Britain from an attack by Germany. They could also potentially be used overseas too if the men volunteered.

He used the old Yeomanry units as the cavalry for his fourteen new territorial divisions. He also changed the status of the Militia. It was now renamed the Special Reserve and would be the holding unit for the regular battalions of a regiment for reserve soldiers recalled to the colours in the event of war.

At the same time as converting Yeomanry, Militia and Volunteers into an integrated defence and training force for a modern war, he also introduced the Officer Training Corps to schools and universities to train future officers. This part of his reforms alone would guarantee a pool of trained young officers ready to fill the ranks of the rapidly expanded army in 1914.

His last major reform at the War Office was the creation of the General Staff, and shortly afterwards the Imperial General Staff. Once again he worked with Haig on this reform, and this would pay dividends in the later war years when Haig was commander-in-chief in France, and responsible for large contingents of troops from Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand and South Africa.

The one thing he didn’t do was introduce conscription. He resisted calls for it and was a great believer in his territorial force and OTC in producing hostilities-only soldiers out of keen volunteers.

In 1910 Haldane left the War Office. Haig who had worked closely with Haldane over the previous three years later called him "the greatest Secretary of State for War England has ever had". Haldane was hoping to go to the Admiralty and start his reforms there. His father had been in the Royal Navy and whilst in the cabinet Haldane had seen how unprepared the Navy was for a modern war against a European power. The job went to Churchill instead. It is now one of history’s what-ifs. What if Haldane had reformed the navy as successfully as he had the army?

Haldane had always had many German friends and spoke German fluently. Before 1914 he worked hard to keep the peace but one man could not stop the momentum building up in Europe for war. On the outbreak of war the prime minister called him back to mobilise the army. No-one knew what was needed better then Haldane. Asquith offered him his old job back at the War Office but Haldane turned it down and suggested an experienced soldier like Kitchener instead. Once again we have another what-if. Kitchener dismissed some of Haldane’s carefully prepared mobilisation plans. He reduced the BEF from six divisions to four and ignored the Territorial Force as reinforcements and instead called for his volunteer army to be raised. What if Haldane had been in charge? How would he have created an army of seventy divisions to fight a war against the most powerful army in Europe?

In August 1914 Haldane’s reforms were put to the test and they more than stood up to them. Crucially for the first time in a major war the British regular army knew exactly what to do on the outbreak of war. The divisions moved to France within days and the contemptible little army gave the Kaiser’s army a bloody nose at Mons and Le Cateau. The Territorial Force quickly moved to their war stations and almost to a man volunteered for overseas service. By 1915 many TF units were in action in France and Gallipoli and held the line before Kitchener’s New Army units were ready for action.

Ironically the man who had done so much to reform the army and prepare it for war found he was sidelined during the war because of his supposed German sympathies. His former allies failed to support him against the hostile press and he was forced to resign as Lord Chancellor just at the time his Territorial Force was going to war.

He remained a committed parliamentarian for the rest of his life serving both Liberal and Labour parties. He didn’t forget his homeland though and he had spells as Lord Rector of Edinburgh University, Chancellor of the University of St Andrews and was made a Freeman of the City of Edinburgh.

This most unlikely of Scottish Military heroes died at his family home in Perthshire in August 1928 just a few months after his old colleague Douglas Haig. ‘The Scotsman’ reported that the local territorials including the 6th/7th Bn Black Watch T.A. lined the roads for his funeral service at Auchterarder. Local resident General Sir Ian Hamilton was in attendance and a Black Watch piper played The ‘Flowers of the Forest’ at his graveside in Gleneagles Cemetery.

Twenty years after he had shaken up the war office the army had not forgotten that Haldane was the man responsible for their ability to fight in 1914, and fourteen years later they gave him a fitting send-off.

Birth of Haig - On this day in Scottish Military History - 150 years ago

Eighty years after his death Earl Haig still rouses passions about his management of the War. Some see him as Scotland's greatest soldier, others consider him the butcher who killed more Scots than anyone else in history.

We've mentioned him a couple of times before on the blog, here and here.

On this day one hundred and fifty years ago the man destined to rise to the top job in the British Army was born in Edinburgh's New Town.

Senior Scottish Generals of the First World War

In the First World War four commanders-in-chief of British forces were Scottish. It was probably more accident than design why a small group of Scotsmen should hold such high command around the same time. They don't seem to have been great friends and they had different backgrounds before achieving high rank.

The titles they held were Commander-in-Chief India, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, Commander-in-Chief British Expeditionary Force and Commander-in-Chief British Salonika Army.

The four soldiers were Douglas Haig, Ian Hamilton, Beauchamp Duff and George Milne. We've covered two of them in Who's Who posts on this blog already so it will only be a quick summary today.

Douglas Haig, Commander-in-Chief British Expeditionary Force

We have covered Haig before. He’s the most well known of the four and he had the top job. In late 1915 he took over the command of the British Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders and oversaw the bloody battles of the Somme and Passchendaele. He also led the British Army to victory in 1918. It was his army which beat the German Army in the field and captured 188,700 prisoners and 2,840 guns almost as much as the French, American and Belgian armies combined. General Pershing the US commander in France called him “The man who won the war”. Apart from commanding the BEF, the divisions and corps fighting at the front; he also commanded all British and British Empire armies in France. That meant at its peak he commanded four million men.

Ian Hamilton, Commander-in-Chief Mediterranean Expeditionary Force

Hamilton was a Who’s Who not so long ago. He was a very experienced soldier when he got the top job in the Mediterranean in March 1915; this theatre covered Egypt and later Gallipoli. Hamilton was expected to take Constantinople and knock the Ottomans out of the war. It didn’t work out that way and by October 1915 his campaign in Gallipoli had stalled with huge loss of life and he was out of his job. This sacking effectively finished his military career.

Beauchamp Duff, Commander-in-Chief India

In March 1914 Lieutenant General Beauchamp Duff from Turriff in Aberdeenshire was appointed to one of the top jobs in the Empire. The Commander-in-Chief India was responsible for 250,000 men across what is now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Aden. It was a huge responsibility for Duff. And when war broke out a few months later he faced a huge challenge. He had to oversee an expansion of his army, he sent 100,000 men to France to help the then tiny British Expeditionary Force and he then had to send most of his forces to Egypt and later Mesopotamia. At the same time he had to continue to garrison the sub-continent.

In 1916 he was the man ultimately responsible for the disaster at the Siege of Kut-El-Amara where eight thousand British and Indian troops surrendered to the Ottoman Army and there had been a further twenty-three thousand casualties trying to relieve them. Duff was the fall guy and was sacked. He returned to the UK and faced an enquiry. Blamed for the debacle along with the Viceroy he tried to clear his name but when that failed he took his own life.

George Milne, Commander-in-Chief Salonika Army

Aberdonian Milne had a background in the army as a gunner, serving in the Royal Artillery from 1885. He was a Major General in command of 27th Division when he first was sent to Salonika in the north of Greece in 1915. His next appointment was to take over as Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Thessalonika when it expanded and was renamed The Salonika Army. This wasn't a command as big as the others; there were seven British divisions fighting alongside French, Serbian, Greek, Italian and Russian troops all under the combined command of French general
Franchet d'Esperey. From 1915 his troops fought against the Bulgarians but after their collapse in October 1918 he finished the First World War pushing his troops towards Constantinople which soon capitulated. The Ottoman capital was in Milne's hands three years after Ian Hamilton had failed.

Out of the four only Milne survived the war with his reputation intact and lived to a long age.

Haig worked hard to do his best for his ex-soldiers but the work took its toll and he was dead within ten years of the end of the war. Duff had killed himself before the war was over. Hamilton lived a long life but his career was finished.

Milne made the rank of Field Marshal and was Chief of the Imperial General Staff from 1926 to 1933. He was appointed Constable of The Tower of London from 1933 to 1938 and also in 1933 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Milne, of Salonika and of Rubislaw in the County of Aberdeen. Field Marshal George Francis Milne, 1st Baron Milne GCB, GCMG, DSO passed away peacefully aged 81 in 1948.

Others

It is also worth mentioning another Scottish general who died just after the outbreak of the war. Lieutenant General James Grierson died of a heart attack in France on 17th August 1914 just as the British Army was arriving to fight the Germans.

Grierson was from Glasgow and like Milne had seen his early army service in the Royal Artillery. He had written several books military subjects and after the TF was formed in 1908 he wrote the history of the Scottish Volunteer force from 1859-1908. It was a comprehensive history and is still the definitive history of the Scottish volunteers over one hundred years after it was published.

Grierson was sent to France to command I Corps whilst Haig commanded II Corps. He was peer and rival of Haig, and in war games on Salisbury Plain in 1912 had actually beaten Haig. If Grierson had not died an untimely death he may have taken the top job instead of Haig in 1915.

Another Scot worth mentioning is the Edinburgh man Richard Haldane. Haldane had been in charge at the War Office in 1908 when he reformed the army and created the Territorial Force. Haldane and Haig worked together to prepare a British Expeditionary Force which could be sent to France at short notice.

Kitchener gets the glory for forming the New Armies of volunteers in 1914 but it was Haldane's foresight back in 1908 which prepared the British Army for the continental war ahead.

Not in a top job but another senior general was the Ayrshire man Lieutenant-General Sir Aylmer Gould Hunter-Weston. The former Royal Engineer commanded VIII Corps at Gallipoli and on the first day of the Somme. There’s not much good you can say about Hunter-Weston. He seems to have had little imagination when it came to tactics and he sent thousands of his men to their deaths throughout the war.

I think I’ve covered the Scotsmen in the top jobs in the Great War but if you know of others in army Commander-in-Chief, or corps Commander roles please leave a comment here, or on our facebook page.

Who's Who in Scottish Military History #2 - 1st Earl Haig

He's a pretty controversial figure but in my opinion the First Earl Haig is worth mentioning as part of my Who's Who series. You may think you know him - he's often portrayed as the callous butcher of a generation of young Britons; but whatever you think about him he is one of Scotland's greatest generals.

He very much considered himself a Scot; he was born in Edinburgh, came from a family of whisky distillers, was a Church of Scotland Elder and made his family home at Bemersyde in the Borders.

He had many faults and many critics but the facts are quite simple; when the British Empire's biggest expeditionary force in its history was at its peak he was its leader. He commanded four million men in the field. No other Briton, never mind Scot, before or since, has commanded as big an army.

There's no denying he made mistakes but there was nothing his experience which had prepared him, or any other British general, for the monumental task the army faced. They had to take millions of civilians and turn them into an army which could take on and beat the biggest and best army in Europe. Haig had actually started that process in 1907 when he worked at the War Office in London. Another Edinburgh born man, Richard Haldane, was the then Secretary of State for War and he worked closely with Haig on the Army reforms of 1908 which created the Territorial Force and the seven division strong British Expeditionary Force which a few years later formed the backbone of the BEF.

In France Haig slowly built up a British and Commonwealth force which by 1918 could absorb the German Army's punishing Spring Offensive and then just four months later deliver the most crushing defeat on the Germans. The military historian Gary Sheffield called the last hundred days of the First World War "'by far the greatest military victory in British history"; the American Commander in France, General John Pershing later said that Haig was "the man who won the war".

So there you go - it wasn't the Americans who finally won war in 1918, it was the British Army, led by a Scotsman.

Earl Haig dies

From the BBC News Website:

Earl Haig dies at the age of 91

Earl Haig, the son of British World War I commander Field Marshal Douglas Haig, has died at the age of 91.

George Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig was born in March 1918 at the time of a major German offensive.

The death of his father - who is buried at Dryburgh Abbey in the Borders - saw him become the 2nd Earl Haig of Bemersyde at the age of nine.

Haig, who was known as Dawyck, was imprisoned at Colditz after being captured during World War II.

He once said that this time as a prisoner had a profound effect on his life.

"I was thus able to prepare myself for the post-war world in which I would play a part quite different from the one which I would have played had the war not happened," he said.

"Ironically, out of the evil that Hitler wrought upon my life there came some good."

That included becoming a long-serving office bearer in numerous ex-service charities.

Among them were the Royal British Legion Scotland, the Earl Haig Fund Scotland, the Lady Haig's Poppy Factory and the Scottish National Institution for War Blinded.

He later became an acclaimed artist and was a president of the Scottish Craft Centre and a trustee of the National Gallery of Scotland.

However, his name was forever linked with his famous parent as was seen in the title of his autobiography, My Father's Son.

In 2006, on the eve of the 90th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, he spoke out to defend his father's record in World War I.

Earl Haig said he wanted to "set the record straight".

"I believe it has now turned full circle and people appreciate his contribution," he said at the time.

"But it saddens me my three sisters have not survived to see it.

"They died suffering from the beastly attitudes of the public towards our father."