Overall: 42cm (16.5in) x 28cm (11in)
Oil on board. Three quarter length portrait sketch of Sir Douglas Haig, master of the battlefield, who presided over both bloody stagnation on the Western Front and victories unparalleled in British military history, in service dress uniform. Framed.
Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig of Ypres (1861-1928) was commissioned into the 7th Hussars in 1885 and by 1904 Haig had become the youngest major general in the British Army. On the outbreak of war in 1914, he helped organise the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), commanded by Field-Marshal John French. In 1915 he replaced French as Commander-in-Chief of the BEF and directed British campaigns including the Somme in 1916. Haig's tactics in these battles were and still are considered controversial by many including the then Prime Minister Lloyd George. Nevertheless his generalship during the later years of the First World War led to the breaking of the Hindenburg Line and the Allied victory of 1918. After the war Haig devoted the rest of his life to the welfare of ex-servicemen, and was involved in the creation of the Royal British Legion, of which he was president until his death.