The shotguns once owned by Sir Douglas Haig. (Click on image to enlarge). UPDATE: THESE FAILED TO REACH THEIR RESERVE AND WERE UNSOLD.
A pair of 12 bore sporting shotguns once owned by Sir Douglas Haig (1861-1928) will be sold at Bonhams in December. Makers J. Purdey & Sons confirmed that the guns were completed in 1887 and were formerly the property of Earl Haig. At the end of 1915, Field Marshal Haig was appointed head of the British forces on the Western Front.
In February 1916, Germany began a campaign against the French at Verdun. To relieve pressure on the French the British began an attack along the Somme. On July 1 the battle started. It lasted five months. The allies lost 620,000 men, mostly British. The German line was not broken. A few miles of territory was all that was achieved.
Born into the whisky making family, Douglas Haig was a career soldier who served with distinction in the Boer War. He was aide-de-camp to King Edward VII between 1902 and 1904. He was Commander-in-Chief of the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from December 1915 to the end of the war. His sporting guns will be sold at Bonhams on December 13 and are estimated at £15,000 to £20,000.