EARL HAIG

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 25, 30 January 1929, Page 18

EARL HAIG

HIS LONDON CHURCH

A MEMORIAL 'UABLKT

(From "The Post's" RoprownUtlve.)

LONDON, 2nd November

Last week tho Duke of York, accompanied by tho Duchess of York, unveiled a tablet to the memory of KeldMarshal Lord Haig .of Bemersyde in St. ,Columba'.s (Church of Scotland), Pont street, Chelsea. The memorial was erected by tho congregation of the church, of which Lord Haig was a member, and in which he held office as an elder, as the inscription records.— In this church in 1921 he was ordained an elder of the Church of Scotland, And here for three days his body rested ere it was taken for burial to Drybnrgh Abbey. He led tho British Annies to victory iv the European War of 1914-1918.

And dedicated tho remainder of his life to tho welfare of his former comrades and of the relatives of those who died.

The background of the tablet is a black slab of "Bleu Beige," which conies from quarries in Belgium, somewhere on the battle front. The slab on which the inscription is written is of "hind flenri," and conies from Boulogne, a British base port during thu war, the object being to -get suitable marbles representing France and Belgium. The Cross on tho top of the stone is of "Lapis Lazuli." Close to tho tablot is tho memorial to 71 members ol: the congregation who died in the war, and immediately opposite it is the tablot to the memory of Lord Balfour of Burleigh, which was unveiled by the Prince of Wales n'vo years ago. Almost above it hang the Colours of the 2nd Battalion (now disbanded) of the London Scottish.

AVhilo Dr. Archibald Fleming pronounced the dedication, the church was still and'kneeling, and then tlio assembly rose to hear the Duke of York's short and simple sentences offered in tribute to the past. "I now unveil a memorial)," ho said, "to a-'great soldier and a groat Scotsman in the church in which ho worshipped and bore office. No memorial is needed to him in the hearts of the exsorvico men, to whoso interests lit: devoted himself with unfailing devotion from the declaration of peace to the last day of his life. It is- fitting, however, that this tablet should ever remind those who worshipped hero of a life devoted to duty and to tho service of "his country."