Field Marshal Earl Haig

The commander of the British forces on the Western Front from late 1915 to the end of the First World War, Haig has been reviled and revered in equal measure. Often critical of Haig, Philip Warner's biography is nonetheless scrupulously fair. The portrait that emerges is of a flawed but courageous individual who almost certainly achieved as much as anyone could have done under the circumstances. Haig withstood the strain of high command at hideous personal cost and was ultimately ground down by the burden. As Warner reveals, Haig probably hastened his own premature death by the energy with which he dedicated himself to the welfare of his former soldiers.