Posterity has not been kind to Douglas Haig, the commander of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front for much of the First World War. Received wisdom, powerfully reinforced by the lacerating caricatures of him in "Oh What A Lovely War!" and "Blackadder Goes Forth", presents Haig as a donkey who sent lions to the slaughter in scarcely credible numbers at the Somme in 1916 and at Passchendaele a year later.Previous biographies of Douglas Haig have mired themselves in the bloody minutiae of his campaigns in France and Flanders. "The Good Soldier" re-examines Haig's record in these battles and presents his predicament with a fresh eye. More importantly, it re-evaluates Haig himself, exploring his character and convictions alongside both his early life and army career before 1914 and his unstinting work on behalf of ex-servicemen's organizations after 1918. Finally, in this definitive biography, the man emerges from the myth.
