Field Marshall Earl Haig

       

 Field Marshall Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, KT,GCB,OM,GCVO, KCIE, ADC

A letter to MQ Magazine Issue 10 and short biography on our namesake who gratuitously gave permission for the Lodge to use his name and presented the Lodge with his 1st Cavalry Sword which is still used in the Lodge to this day.  Come and visit and see the inscription.

EARL HAIG THE MASON

By chance, just after I had read the article about the Duke of Wellington and Freemasonry (MQ, Issue No. 9), there was a visit from Archie Eglinton, who is my wife’s cousin, and I told him about a more modern Field Marshal and his interests in Freemasonry. Archie instructed me to write to you with this story. 

In 1920, Lord Haig came to visit at Broomhall in order to visit a club of ex-servicemen that had been developed in our local town of Dunfermline. My father told me that, in the morning following this dinner of the ex-servicemen, Haig said that he was hoping to be able to form a number of these groups all over Scotland and elsewhere. 

My father said that he then told Haig that he was finding similar groups of ex-servicemen who were joining or had recently joined Freemason Lodges in Scotland. 

Father went on and said to Haig: “You didn’t by any chance become a Freemason, did you?” Haig apparently looked surprised but admitted that, as an undergraduate at Oxford he had joined the local Lodge at Leven in Fife near to their Cameron Bridge distillery and had become a Freemason in Elgin’s Lodge at Leven No. 91. This Lodge was named after the fifth Earl, who was Grand Master Mason in 1761. 

My father then discovered from the Lodge secretary that indeed Douglas Haig, described as an undergraduate at Oxford, had taken his First and Second Degrees and was still awaiting his Third. 

A suitable date was arranged for Field Marshal the Earl Haig, K.T., to receive his Third Degree and he later went on to become Master of the Lodge and was persuaded to take office in Grand Lodge, which he did. When he died he was Senior Grand Deacon. 

The Earl of Elgin and Kincardine K.T.

Past Grand Master Mason of Scotland

This Biog was taken from the BBC Historical figures website.

Haig was British commander on the Western Front for most of World War One. The huge casualties that his military strategy produced has made him a controversial figure.

Douglas Haig was born in Edinburgh on 19 June 1861 into a wealthy family who owned a whisky business. He studied at Oxford University and in 1884 went to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst. He then served as a cavalry officer for nine years, mainly in India. He later took part in the Sudan campaign (1897 - 1898) and the Boer War (1899 - 1902). In 1906, Haig went to the War Office as director of military training. His responsibilities included the organisation of a British Expeditionary Force (BEF) for deployment in the event of war with Germany. On the outbreak of war in 1914, Haig was commanding the BEF's 1st Army Corps, whose overall commander was Sir John French. By the end of 1915, it was clear that French was ill-suited to the role, and in December Haig was appointed commander in chief in his place.

In an attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front and relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun, Haig ordered the Somme offensive, which began on 1 July 1916. The British army suffered 60,000 casualties (just under 20,000 of whom were killed) on the first day, the highest in its history, and Haig's conduct of the battle made him one of the most controversial figures of the war. In July 1917, a new offensive - the Third Battle of Ypres (also known as Passchendaele) resulted in further heavy casualties, but did succeed in weakening the German army and helped prepare the way for its defeat in 1918.

Haig believed that the war could only be won on the Western Front. This caused friction with Lloyd George, secretary of state for war and prime minister from December 1916 who disagreed with this strategy, supported alternative schemes and intrigued against Haig. The great German attacks of the spring of 1918 almost broke the British army, but inspired the creation of a single command of allied forces on the Western Front under the French commander Ferdinand Foch, strongly supported by Haig. Between August and November 1918 the Allied forces under Haig's command achieved a series of victories against the German army which resulted in the end of the war.

Haig served as commander in chief of British Home Forces from 1918 until his retirement in 1921. He also helped establish the Royal British Legion and worked hard to raise funds for it. He was created an earl in 1919 and died on 28 January 1928.