Military Career of James Leslie Haig

[Forfarian]

I am attempting to find out about James Leslie Haig. This is what I have so far.

Born on 3 December 1886 at Castle Ward, Northumberland, parents Alexander Price Haig and Jessie Louisa Armstrong.

In 1910, in Perth, Western Australia, he married Mary Isabella Brack-Boyd, divorced wife of Adam Brack Boyd, coffee planter in India. She was born in Bangalore on 22 May 1868, daughter of William Alexander Allardice and Helen Guthrie, so she was 18 years older than James Leslie Haig. JLH was cited as co-respondent in the divorce action.

I have found various references to JLH as follows

Record of Services of James Leslie Haig, 2nd Bn The Black Watch. Passed Royal Military College 1906. Passed for promotion to Lieutenant 1908. 2nd R P Divn Order No 118 of 17.2.08. Born Newcastle-on-Tyne 3rd December 1886. Father A P Haig Esq, Blair Hill, Rumbling Bridge, NB. Educated at Wellington. Height 5' 5". Periods of Employment At Home from 4.5.07 to 3.9.07. Abroad from 4.9.07. Resigns his commission Gazette dated 4th Septr 1908? [Regimental Records of Officers' Services 1775-1914]
5th Military District. James Leslie Haig to be Lieutenant (provisionally). Dated 20th May 1912. [Commonwealth Gazette, 8 June 1912]
Military Changes .... Third military district senior cadets: James Leslie Haig, to be lieutenant (provisionally) of the old organisation. [Sunday Times, Perth, WA, 9 June 1912]
James Leslie Haig applied for a commission in the Australian Imperial Force on 27 November 1914. However the application form contains only his name and no other information.
4th Military District .... The Undermentioned Honorary Lieutenants to be Lieutenants .... James Leslie Haig .... [Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 23 December 1920]
5th Military District .... To be Lieutenants .... James Leslie Haig [Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 17 March 1921]

I find all this rather baffling. Why was he appointed Lieutenant three times in two different military districts in Australia after he had resigned a commission in Britain? Why was he never promoted further? Surely someone who was a Lieutenant before the 1914-1918 war would normally have made at least captain?

For the sake of completeness of information, Mary Isabella divorced him in Scotland in 1922 and he married Hilda Edith Ogilvy in Scotland on 4 October 1922. She divorced him two years later. In 1939 he was a landscape gardener, married, in Hove, Sussex, in a household including Phyllis (Florence) Haig (Nickells), married, born 1910, and Cyril Ernest Nickells, single, born 1912. I know about Cyril but I am as yet baffled by, and working on, Phyllis or Florence. JLH was bankrupted in 1942 and he died in Cheltenham in 1961.

At this point I am looking only for information about JLH and his curious-looking military career. I have reams of information about Mary Isabella Allardice or Brack Boyd or Haig, who is my blood relative.

[hanes teulu]

A 22 May 1922 newspaper report mentions his joining the army 1914.

The London Gazette has 1 mention on 3 May 1907 re. the Black Watch.

There are 2 other mentions of a James Leslie Haig (21 Jan 1915, 5 Feb 1915) but nothing to identify him as "your" James Leslie. 

[hanes teulu]

Check out the Sunday Post, 21 May 1922, which has a brief mention of his time in the army.

[Forfarian]

Thank you. I am beginning to wonder if there were two James Leslie Haigs, both serving in the Australian forces between 1910 and 1920.

[crisane]

His military records on ancestry includes the following -
James Leslie Haig, Lieutenenat, was recommended for substantive temporary promotion to Captain on 30 Jan 1917 by Divisional Commander Newton J Moore and supported by Colonel Commandant Eastwood.
However JLH resigned from the AIF 6 November 1917 "in consequence of not being absorbed with effect from 6 Nov 1917"

[ShaunJ]

His Australian army file (79 pages) - in case you don't have it: https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=4266145

[Forfarian]

Thank you, especially ShaunJ for that sheaf of military memoranda. Noting that he served with the Australian army from 1914 util 1917, I reckon it answers all of my questions except the three apparent appointments as a Lieutenant in 1912, 1920 and 1921.

I imagine that the reason for resigning his original commission in the regular army in 1908 was his affair with his future wife, who at that time was married to someone else. They travelled to Australia together as man and wife in November 1908.

Investigating JLH has thrown up a general query. He passed the examinations for Sandhurst in 1905. I note from a report in the 'Morning Post' that the successful candidates were listed in order of the number of points they had scored, and that all the top scorers are listed under 'Woolwich' and the others (except two) are listed under 'Sandhurst'. Am I correct in deducing that the top scorers went to the Royal Military College at Woolwich and the rest to the Royal Military College at Sandhurst? And what proportion of those who sat the examinations normally passed?