Earl Haig, 1918-2009

George ‘Dawyck’ Haig was son of the Field Marshall, Douglas Haig, Britain's commander-in-chief in WWI. He struggled between his two roles, a modernist painter and the second Earl Haig, laird of Bermersyde, a 14th-century house near Melrose in the Scottish borders which, which had been in the Haig family for 800 years. In WWII he served in the Royal Scots Greys as a second lieutenant but was captured in North Africa and sent to Colditz Castle as a prisoner of war. The paintings and drawings he made there were exhibited at The Scottish Gallery soon after the end of the war. He studied at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts from 1945, and it was around this time that he suffered a nervous breakdown and was advised by his psychoanalyst to focus on his art. Although he moved back to Bermersyde and took on the responsibilities of the estate, he went on to have a successful and long career as an artist, exhibiting in Edinburgh and London.