GEORGE Alexander Eugene Douglas Haig, a life-long supporter of the Lady Haig's Poppy Factory in Edinburgh, has died at the age of 91.
As the 2nd Earl Haig, he was the son of the controversial First World War commander Field Marshall Douglas Haig.
He died yesterday at the Borders General Hospital in Melrose.
Earl Haig was born in March 1918. On the death of his father, he be
came the 2nd Earl Haig of Bemersyde at the age of nine.
During the Second World War, he was imprisoned at Colditz, an experience he later said had a major effect on his life. He said: "I was thus able to prepare myself for the post-war world in which I would play a part quite different from the one which I would have played had the war not happened.
"Ironically, out of the evil that Hitler wrought upon my life there came some good."
Earl Haig was a strong supporter of the Royal British Legion Scotland and the Earl Haig Fund – now known as Poppy Scotland – which his father founded in 1921.
A Legion spokesman said: "Earl Haig was our national chairman, between 1963 and 1965, and was deeply committed to the ex-service community and kept a proud and paternal eye on the Legion. He and his wife were equally committed to the Scottish Poppy Appeal and the Lady Haig's Poppy Factory in Edinburgh.
"He played an important part in developing almost every ex-service charity in Scotland.
"His influence and broad knowledge of both the military and ex-military will be impossible to replace as there is no-one left with experience stretching back to the inter-war years."
His father was commander of the British forces at the Somme and Ypres and his role has made him one of the most controversial military figures of the last century.
For years after his death he was portrayed as a military buffoon who oversaw the deaths of thousands of heroes.
He was pilloried for his arrogance, egotism, intellectual shortcomings and refusal to muddy his boots in the trenches, but his son repeatedly defended his reputation.
In 2006, Earl Haig said: "Nobody likes to see his father labelled as a butcher and I think it's very important for the good of this country to set the record straight.
"I found the criticism really rather difficult and sad as his leadership was paramount to winning the war.
"The country could not get anyone better than him."
Earl Haig, a professional artist, was interviewed by the Evening News in March 2008 ahead of his exhibition, Haig at Ninety, at The Scottish Gallery.
He said: "My mother always encouraged me to draw and paint as a child because I really wasn't well enough to get involved in sports.
"I had typhoid when I was nine - that's when my father died. I couldn't run around, but I was always happy to paint."
He lived for most of his life at Bemersyde, a 14th-century house near Melrose.
Earl Haig is survived by his wife, Donna Geroloma Lopez y Royo di Taurisano, two daughters and his heir, Viscount Dawick.
