Skip to content

Experiences of the Great War

The Boer War

The South African Boer War lasted from 1898 to 1902, and Douglas Haig was involved in it from 1899 as a Staff Officer.

It was in South Africa that Haig began to make a name for himself, and to attract the attention of his superior officers, notably Sir John French and Lord Kitchener. French was to become commander of the British Expeditionary Force at the start of the First World War, a post to which Haig succeeded in 1915.

Haig became Commander of the 17th Lancers (stationed in Edinburgh), in 1901.

Other experiences