FIELD Marshal Earl Haig, founder of the Royal British Legion and Royal British Legion Scotland was honoured at Dryburgh Abbey by Borders members of the Legion last month.

After a service in St Boswells Parish Church conducted by the Rev. Sheila Moir, The President of the Legion’s Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders Area, Alasdair Hutton, laid a wreath at the Field Marshal’s grave at Dryburgh Abbey to the accompaniment of the Flowers of the Forest played at the graveside by piper Alastair Currie from Coldstream and flanked by four Legion standards.

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Speaking at St Boswells Church, Alasdair Hutton reminded the congregation that the Field Marshal was “not a casual butcher” but “a devout Christian who cared deeply about the men under his command.”

“In spite of being kept short of men by the British Government and a hostile campaign in the press. he brought the war to an end at least nine months earlier than the British Government and the French commander believed was possible using his own judgement in one of the finest instances of moral courage in all our history.”

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“After the end of the war, Haig refused all honours until the Government agreed to provide allowances for officers and men and then instead of stopping there he devoted all his energies to founding the British Legion and the British Legion Scotland, now both Royal, to help look after the welfare of the veterans of the war.”

Alasdair said that Haig would have been a failure in the modern era of sound-bites, he did not have ready quotes and he never sought to explain his actions but let the results speak for themselves.

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“Even in death he was modest. His body was carried to Dryburgh Abbey on a farm cart and his headstone is the same as those which mark the graves of the men who fell in France.”

Alasdair said Haig had “secured our liberties for a generation and also left us a continuing legacy in the Royal British Legion and the Royal British Legion Scotland.”