This is a Valentine’s Company postcard printed in Great Britain, the photograph was taken on Wednesday 10th November 1937 at the unveiling of the Earl Haig equestrian statue in Whitehall, this is how “The Times” newspaper reported the event in their Thursday 11th November issue.
THE HAIG STATUE UNVEILED
TRIBUTE BY DUKE OF GLOUCESTER
LIFE GIVEN IN SERVICE
Nine years after the death of Field Marshall Haig, a statue to his memory was unveiled in Whitehall yesterday by the Duke of Gloucester. The memorial, in bronze on a White stone base shows the soldier who was Commander-in-Chief of the British Armies in France from 1915 to 1918 mounted on a charger and facing the Cenotaph where to-day the anniversary of the Armistice will for the nineteenth time be solemnly observed. Members of the Cabinet, members of former Governments, representatives of the Dominions, the Board of Admiralty, the Army Council and the Air Council together with the present Lord Haig and other members of the family, saw the ceremony. The Duke of Connaught, who is the senior Field-Marshal, was represented by Field-Marshall William Birdwood, and the company included many prominent officers of the War years. A contingent of 2,000 serving personnel of the Defence Services paraded in three columns on the south side of the statue and was balanced on the north side by 2000 ex-Service men representing the British Legion, the British Legion in Scotland, the Empire Service League, the Old Contemptibles and regimental Royal Marines and Royal Air Force Associations. There were two guards of honour, one mounted by the 1st Battalion, Grenadier Guards and the other by 30 ex Service holders of the Victoria Cross. Posted at each corner of the statue were members and ex-Service members of the 7th Hussars and the 17th/2lst Lancers, the two regiments in which Lord Haig had served. A large crowd packed the pavements on either side of Whitehall.
IN THREE RANKS
The afternoon was fine but cold, and a keen wind, which whipped late autumn leaves from the trees outside the Royal United Service Institution, billowed the brown canvas shroud surrounding the statue while the units from the Services and the ex-Service contingents were marching with bands to take up their positions. When the setting was complete the three khaki, blue, and grey ranks stretched almost to the Cenotaph.
The Duke of Gloucester, who wore service khaki with a great coat and was accompanied by Mr. Hore-Belisha, Secretary of State for War, and Mr. Duff Cooper, First Lord of the Admiralty came into Whitehall from the Scottish Office shortly before 3.30, and after a Royal Salute had been given, he inspected the guards of honour. Before proceeding to the south side of the statue he stopped to shake hands with Lord Haig, Sir Philip Sassoon, First Commissioner of Works, presented to him Mr. A. F. Hardiman, A.R.A., the sculptor, and Mr. S. Rowland Pierce, A.R.l.B.A., the architect. Taking a position facing the front of the covered statue the Duke said he regarded it as a great honour that he should have been entrusted with the task of unveiling the memorial. “It is an additional source of satisfaction to me as a cavalry officer,” he continued, “to remember that the cavalry was the arm in which Lord Haig served, and that he was both a distinguished horseman and a brilliant exponent of cavalry tactics. Lord Haig was a man of few words and would not have wished that many should be spoken on this occasion. But it is right that while unveiling this monument to his fame we should recall for a moment his calls on our gratitude.”
DURING THREE WARS
"Of no man can it be said with greater truth that his whole life was devoted to the service of his country. In three wars he was in the field from the opening of hostilities until the end. ln the last and longest of these wars he commanded for three-and-a-half years the largest Army that the British Empire has ever produced, and it was his leadership which inspired it during the final phases which ultimately brought victory to the cause of the Allies. As soon as that great task was accomplished he set himself without a day ‘s delay to the performance of another which he considered of equal importance, and the last 10 years of his life were devoted to the care and welfare of the men who had served under his command. There is no doubt that the hard work from which he never spared himself shortened his life, and he would not have had it otherwise. So many brave soldiers had fallen in his service. He eventually fell in serving them. Both he and they were content to give their lives for the cause of their country, and their country will remember them for evermore."
At the end of this speech the Duke of Gloucester pressed a handle, which released the brown shroud concealing the memorial and the troops and the public saw the statue for the first time. Trumpeters of the Royal Horse Guards sounded a general salute and his Royal Highness laid a wreath of poppies at the foot of the memorial. Five other wreaths were brought to the statue by Lord Haig and other members of the family, including Master Montagu Douglas Scott, a small grandson of the late Field Marshal. The Service contingents then moved out from Whitehall and a march past the statue by the long column of ex-Service men was led by General Sir William Thwaites. The majority of the men in the procession seemed to be grey-haired but they kept firm ranks. As they came into line with the memorial hats and caps were removed and eyes turned right in salute.
The following officers and non-commissioned officers drawn from various regiments represented the Colonial Military Forces: -
Lieutenant-Colonel C. V. Bennett. Somaliland Camel Corps, King’s African Rifles: Major C. A. B. Joske. Fiji Defence Force: Captain G. F. C. Haden. Nigeria Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force: Captain E. S. Turner. Gold Coast Regiment, Royal West African Frontier Force: Captain H. P. Williams. Southern Brigade, King's African Rifles: Lieutenant O. G. Brooke. Somaliland Camel Corps, King's African Rifles: Regimental Sergeant-Major J. C. Worker. Northern Brigade, King's African Rifles.
