Contributed by Ron Inglis, October 2021:
Having been in the AIF for three years and one month, Lieutenant George Haig, 27, was one of five Auburn Memorial men who were in the AIF for more than three years prior to their deaths. Forty-four per cent of Auburn Memorial men were deceased before the first anniversary of their enlistment.
Plumber George Haig was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, and was a member of the Auburn Presbyterian Church. On enlistment, he nominated his mother in Scotland as his next-of-kin but in an early ‘Application to Enlist’ form he gave his address as ‘Rosemont’ Auburn Road, Auburn.
Haig enlisted as a Private at Liverpool, NSW, on 20 July 1915. He then embarked for the war on the Beltana on 9 November 1915. He must have reached Egypt by 31 December 1915, as he was awarded the 1914-1915 Star.
As noted above, Haig was one of the longest serving of the Auburn Memorial men and he had a fine record. With time spent training in Australia and Egypt, plus the voyage on the Beltana, Haig took nearly a year from his enlistment to get to the Western Front with the 30th Battalion of the 5th Australian Division. At that stage, his leadership skills were recognized.
Haig was promoted to Sergeant four days after the disaster of Fromelles. A year later he was selected to do an Officers Training Course at Pembroke College, Cambridge, United Kingdom, after which he was commissioned 2nd Lieutenant. Haig returned to his unit in Belgium during the Passchendaele offensive and was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in December 1917. The 5th Australian Division was brought down into France for the 1918 advance up the Somme Valley and here Haig was killed in action on 8 August 1918.
Company Report. Lieut. G. Haig. 30th Battalion, A.I.F. Killed in action. 8.8.18:
"This officer was instantly killed by enemy machine gun fire, about midday on the 8th August, 1918. The wounds were received from a hidden machine gun which was established in a number of enemy hutments, situated about 300 yards in front of our outpost line. At the time this officer was making a reconnaissance and chanced to see several of the enemy moving between the huts. He moved forward to capture them, but was met with a machine gun, firing at point blank range, which killed him instantly.
His body was taken back by the Battalion transport to Abigny (within two miles of the town of Corbie) and buried there in the Military Cemetery by Padre Dent, Military Chaplain (Church of England) attached to his unit."
Haig’s name was misspelt as Haigh on the on the Auburn War Memorial. Perhaps the committee mixed up Lieutenant George Haig with Lieutenant William Haigh, whose name appears on the Granville War Memorial and on the 1914-1918 Honour Roll in the Auburn Anglican Church.
Haig’s name is spelt correctly on the First World War Honour Roll in the Auburn Presbyterian Church and in the stained-glass window in the church that commemorates 10 members of the church who died in the Great War.
It is unclear who put forward Haig’s name forward for the Auburn War Memorial. It was could have been the Auburn Presbyterian Church or ‘his loving friend, M. Picken of Adderly Street, Auburn’, who had placed an In Memoriam notice in the local newspaper.
Note: When Haig enlisted as a private, he was given the regimental number of 807, however, the the National Archives of Australia database does not recognise this number. As he became an officer, he is listed under ‘Lieutenant Haig’, as officers in the First AIF were not issued with a regimental number.
George Haig is honoured on the following memorials in Australia:
- Auburn War Memorial
- Municipality of Auburn 1914-1919 Honour Roll
- Auburn Presbyterian Church First World War Honour Roll
- Auburn Presbyterian Church First World War Memorial Window
- Roll of Honour Australian War Memorial Canberra
His decorations:
- British War Medal
- 1914-20 Victory Medal
