Home > World War I > Douglas Haig Biography

June 19, 1861
Edinburgh, Scotland
January 30, 1928
London, England

Soldier, general, commander of British army

When World War I began, Douglas Haig was widely considered to be Britain's greatest soldier. However by war's end, Haig was just as widely considered a butcher, a distant leader who had sent hundreds of thousands of British youth to their deaths. Although the public view of Douglas Haig had been altered, Haig himself had not changed. From the start of his career he was entirely devoted to the principles of duty, honor, and hard work. These principles lay behind the orders he gave to the thousands of British soldiers who fought on the terrible battlefields of Ypres and the Somme. But these principles and Haig's outdated military methods both failed in the battles of World War I. Haig's fall from glory was a signal that the world had been changed forever by World War...