Great Scots of Note: Scotland on Britannia

Gateway to the British Isles since 1996

Scots Who Made A Difference

by Peter N. Williams, Ph.D.
© 2007 Britannia.com

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HAIG, DOUGLAS, 1st Earl (1861-1928)
Field Marshall Douglas Haig, commander-in-chief of the British forces in France during World War l was a Scot who certainly made a difference in many thousands of lives. His strategy of attrition resulted in hundreds of thousands of British casualties during the years 1916-17 but brought hardly any other results. It is Haig's face and beckoning finger that was used on recruiting campaigns in Britain; it was copied by the US Government in World War l when James Montgomery Flagg replaced Haig's face with the stern visage of Uncle Sam and his catchy slogan "I Want You."

Haig's early career took him to wars in The Sudan and South Africa and to administrative posts in India. During the Great War, after he had replaced the unfortunate commander-in-chief, John French (who had failed to capitalize on early British successes at Ypres when the tank first saw action), Haig's Somme offensive cost the British forces almost half a million casualties; his costly errors were repeated at Passchendaele.

All that we can say in Haig's favor is that the German armies were suffering much the same kind of losses in their own misguided trench warfare, so that peace eventually did come when both sides were practically exhausted. When Haig did get his act together, he helped stop the last German offensive of the war and led the victorious allied assault, greatly aided by the fresh American troops and their supplies that finally brought the armistice. Before the outbreak of war, Haig had helped establish the Territorial Army ("The Terriers") as a useful army reserve. After the war, Haig organized the British Legion for ex-servicemen.

HALDANE, RICHARD BURDON, 1st Viscount
Along with Edinburgh-born Douglas Haig, Richard Haldane, of the same city, was responsible for the formation of the British Territorial Army (equivalent to the US Army Reserve) in 1908. The move was part of Haldane's military reforms carried out while he was secretary of state for war. The formation of the Reserve helped the professional army speedily embark for France in the early days of the war. His reform of the British General Staff came after he had studied the organization of the German military in 1906.

Haldane was a Liberal Member of the House of Commons for 24 years before entering the Lords. Apart from politics (in which he served as lord chancellor on two occasions), he was interested in education, helping found the very influential London School of Economics in 1895. As a philosopher, he wrote about the philosophical consequences of Einstein's revolutionary theories of physics in his The Reign of Relativity (1921).

HALDANE, ELIZABETH SANDERSON (1862-1937)
Sister of Viscount Haldane, Elizabeth was also interested in Hegelian philosophy, translating works by that writer (Hegel) as well as by Descartes. She also wrote biographies of George Eliot and Mrs. Gaskell, showing her interest in female authors. It was her work in female emancipation, in fact, that won her fame and gave her a place on our list, for she was in the forefront of the pre-World War l movement for British women's rights.

In 1914, Haldane became Britain's first woman trustee of Andrew Carnegie's UK Trust which, she used to keep alive the venerable institution, the Sadler's Wells Theatre and Ballet Company. In 1920, she was appointed as the first woman Justice of the Peace in Scotland. For most of her adult life, Elizabeth championed the cause of opportunities for woman in the learned professions and in their advanced education.

HALL, BASIL (1788-1844)
Yet another influential Scottish explorer was Basil Hall, naval officer and explorer. From Dunglass, now in East Lothian, Hall earned his place for his travels to the United States, South America and Asia, all of which were well documented, providing valuable information about the various countries visited. In 1815, he visited China as commander of the escort ship accompanying William Pitt Amherst, the English Ambassador to the Chinese Emperor at Peking. Hall's reports were published as: Account of a Voyage of Discovery to the West Coast of Corea and the Great Loo-Choo Island (1818); Extracts from a Journal Written on the Coasts of Chili, Peru and Mexico, in the Years 1822 1821,1822 (in 2 volumes, 1829); and Travels in North America in the Years 1827 and 1828 (3 volumes, 1829).

HALL, SIR JAMES (1761-1832)
Also from Dunglass, East Lothian was James Hall, geologist and physicist, who contributed a great deal to our knowledge of rock formations. Hall's experimental testing of fellow Scottish geologist James Hutton's theories concerning the nature of igneous rocks led him to the conclusion that igneous rocks had been produced by intense heat. Because of his work, Sir James can be considered the father of experimental geology.

HAMILTON, JAMES HAMILTON, 1st Duke (1606-1649)
Because James Hamilton did so much to damage the cause of King Charles I in the English Civil Wars of the mid-17th century, and because of the subsequent defeat and beheading of Charles I and the consolidation of the powers of Parliament, later to include democratic representation, the Scottish Royalist has to be included as one of influence. It was Hamilton's vacillating, ineffective leadership that did the most damage to the king when perhaps his cause could have been successful.

Hamiltons' incompetence as a military leader was honed in Europe when he was sent to command a Swedish force fighting in Germany in the Thirty Years War. A favorite of Charles, Hamilton was then made a commissioner to deal with the stubborn and rebellious Scots, who had drawn up the National Covenant to pledge their support for Presbyterianism and their objection to the insistence of the equally stubborn king that the English liturgy be used in Scottish churches. Hamilton's quest failed, but his attempts to compromise with Argyll earned him the enmity of more committed Royalists such as the Earl of Montrose.

To his credit, Hamilton tried to keep Scotland neutral in the Civil Wars between King and Parliament, but was forced to flee to England by the Covenanters, where he was imprisoned by the now untrusting Charles. Nevertheless, the besieged king, desperate for a victory, gave command of a 24,000 man army to his former Scottish friend to meet a much smaller force under Oliver Cromwell at Preston in August 1648. Once again showing his proclivity for ineffective leadership, Hamilton was easily defeated and earned his execution by Cromwell the following year.

HAMILTON, PATRICK (1504-28)
A member of one of the most prominent families in Scotland, and raised a Catholic, Patrick Hamilton converted to Lutheranism and became his country's first Protestant martyr. Hamilton had written a book that was condemned as heretical and fled to Germany. None other than the notorious Catholic Bishop Beaton, hearing of Hamilton's teachings and contamination of his people, had the Protestant leader lured back to St. Andrew's to try him, find him guilty and burn him alive. Scotland thus joined in with the rest of civilized, enlightened Europe in burning its heretics.

Hamilton's trial, condemnation and execution were rushed through in less than 12 hours. The savagery of burning horrified John Knox, having a marked effect upon his future career. The gunpowder placed among the faggots exploded but didn't kill the suffering Hamilton, only blowing off one hand and part of his face, and leaving him another six hours to slowly roast to death, to the satisfaction of the sadistic Beaton. Revenge then became the order of the day, and ultimately, Catholicism as a major religion was doomed in Scotland.

HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1788-1856)
Glasgow-born Sir William Hamilton, metaphysical philosopher and educator, became chair of logic and metaphysics in 1836 at Edinburgh University. He contributed much to the field of logic, but is particularly known for his writings on the German philosophers, which he helped bring in vogue. Hamilton endeavored to marry the Scottish "philosophy of common sense" to the more radical views of Kant, and by so doing, introduced the ideas of the German philosopher to the British educated public. He helped to bring about many reforms in Scottish education, but his fame rests primarily on his work in logic, extending the range of classification of propositions and is thus relatively unknown.

HAMILTON, SIR WILLIAM (1730-1803)
Another Sir William Hamilton to earn his place in our list is the diplomat and archaeologist, the husband of the famous (some say notorious) Lady Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson. It was while Hamilton was British envoy to the court of Naples that his wife met and had an affair with the British admiral. While in the Italian city, Sir William made a series of observations of the volcanoes Vesuvius and Etna, leading to his publication of several treatises on earthquakes and volcanic actions. Many of his collections are now found as an invaluable part of the British Museum. In 1791, Hamilton had married Lady Emma who lived with Nelson after her husband's death.

HARDIE, JAMES KEIR (1856-1915)
A great hero to many, many thousands of British working men and women during the early part of this century, Lanarkshire-born Keir Hardie was a particular favorite of the author's grandfather, a Welsh coal miner. Hardie was the very first Labour Member of Parliament, stunning that august and sober body by taking his seat wearing not the traditional top hat of the aristocrat and wealthy landowner, but a plain cloth deerstalker (later transmogrified by legend to a working man's flat cloth cap).

Hardie began life as son to a poor unwed mother, a farm servant who later married a ship's carpenter and early trade unionist. Starting work at about age eight, Hardie went into the coal mines at age 10 (quite common in the 1860's before the parliamentary reforms of child labor and the introduction of compulsory education). After being blacklisted for his union activities by the mine owners at Lanark, Hardie moved to Ayr to become secretary of a miner's organization. He then published his own newspapers espousing his Socialist views and helping form miners' unions throughout the country.

In 1888, Hardie founded the Scottish Labour Party, and though defeated in his bid for a seat in the House of Commons that year, was elected in 1892 from a Welsh mining constituency at Merthyr Tydfil. In 1893, he helped organize the Independent Labour Party that appealed to so many members of Britain's working class. After losing his seat in 1895, Hardie set about organizing a disciplined labour contingent at Parliament; his efforts led to the formation of the Labour Representation Committee in 1900, forerunner to the Labour Party itself. He then led the new party at Parliament until 1907.

Hardie's pacifism and attempts to cause a general strike in all the countries involved should war break out caused him to fall out of bed with the majority opinion in his party that supported British participation in the Great War. Though he failed in his most noble attempt, Hardie consistently sought to enlarge the role of labour in maintaining peace.

HARRY, THE MINSTREL (1470-192)
Blind Harry lived only a short time, yet his narrative verses on The Acts and Deeds of the illustrious and Valiant Champion, Sir William Wallace brought fame to himself and made the name of Wallace famous throughout Britain. Harry claimed that his work was based on that of John Blair, a Benedictine monk at Dunfermline a contemporary of Wallace. The purpose of the poem was to warn the Scots people against the country of England and against those Scots who favored an alliance with England. About 20 editions were published from the 16th to the 18th century; they had an enormous influence on shaping Scottish opinion in regards to their southern neighbors, the enemy who were seen not to be trusted, emulated or admired in any capacity whatsoever.

HAY, GEORGE CAMPBELL (1915-84)
George Hay's Gaelic name was Georsa MacLain Deorsa. The son of J. MacDougall Hay, the Scottish novelist, Hay published many translations into Gaelic from a number of European languages. In his original Gaelic-language poetry, however, he made his greatest contribution to his country's literature. To traditional Gaelic themes, he added modern ways of seeing, thus making acceptable the more classical verse of his people.

One of Hay's more well-known poems is To a Bonny Birch Tree (Do Bheithe Boidheach). The poet's experiences during the Second World War brought a new dimension to his work, in which he viewed Europe as the "ancient sanctuary of art, the tender heart of humanity" stripped of all its feathers and reduced to a mere promontory of Asia. His poems of this period were also affected by his experiences in the Middle East, causing him to express his nationalism for Scotland and his exhortation to his nation's youth to strive to avoid destruction. With the current Gaelic revival and more of Hay's work are being published and appreciated.

HAY, SIR GILBERT (d. 1456)
Also known as Sir Gilbert of the Haye, this Scottish translator of French works provided us with the earliest extant examples of literary Scots prose. After service with Charles VII of France, Sir Gilbert joined a small group led by the Earl of Orkney and Caithness, in whose company he translated three of the most popular works of the Middle Ages. Honore Bonet's Book of the Law of Arms, a French version of Lull's Book of the Order of Knighthood (completed ten years before William Caxton's version) and a French version of the pseudo-Aristotelian The Book of the Governance of Princes. Though only one of his poetic works survives, a translation of the French Roman of d. Alexandre, Sir Gilbert of the Haye is named as a poet by both William Dunbar and Sir David Lyndsay.

HENDERSON, ALEXANDER (1583-1646)
Another clergyman who did so much to help defeat Charles I and to preserve the Presbyterian form of church government in Scotland was Alexander Henderson, from Creich in Fife. For many years lying low as a quiet country minister, uninvolved in controversy, Henderson suddenly appeared on the national stage during an ecclesiastical dispute in 1637 when he refused to procure copies for his parish of the new book of canons and the book of worship imposed by the King. Summoned to Edinburgh, he won fame as a leader by defiantly continuing the disobedience that found expression in the National Covenant of 1638. This led, in turn, to a general assembly of churchmen in Glasgow the same year in which Henderson acted as moderator.

After he had written his Instructions for a Defensive Arms in 1638 that justified the people's right to self-defense, Henderson acted as the main negotiator in the settlement that followed the two Bishop's Wars over the control of the Church of Scotland. His reward came in 1641 when the Presbyterian system was made secure in Scotland after Charles had lost his attempt to subordinate the Scottish Church to that of England. Then came the outbreak of the Civil War between King and Parliament.

Henderson found himself leading the great majority of Scots on the side of Parliament, not only commiting military support through the Solemn League and Covenant of 1643, but also winning representation in the English assembly of Westminster that advised Parliament. His reputation in the reformed church of Scotland is second only to that of John Knox. He wrote a number of tracts dealing with religious matters and the government of the church.

HENDERSON, ARTHUR (1863-1935)
In 1934, Arthur Henderson, born in Glasgow and former iron molder at the Newcastle upon Tyne locomotive works of Robert Stephenson (of Stephenson's Rocket fame) was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

At Newcastle, the young Henderson had become Secretary of the Local Iron Founders' Union and Liberal Party and a member of various municipal councils. He was elected Mayor of Darlington in 1900, the same year he entered Parliament as a Labour Party Member, winning his seat over both Conservative and Liberal candidates. Henderson served as chairman of the Labour Party from 1914 to 1917 and party secretary from 1911 to 1934.

During the early days of the First World War, which he ardently supported against many in his own party's leadership, Henderson assumed many governmental duties including President of the Board of Education and Paymaster General and adviser on labour matters. He then entered the cabinet of Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George, journeying to Russia in 1917 to accept the plan of Kerensky's provisional government for an international Socialist conference in Stockholm. Lloyd George's vacillation in the matter caused Henderson to resign from the Cabinet.

Following the war, along with Sidney Webb, Henderson worked to reform the party, creating its first constitution and making Labour an avowed Socialist party with effective constituency organizations. Under fellow Scot Ramsay MacDonald, he served first as home secretary and then as foreign secretary, in which capacity he strongly supported the formation of the League of Nations. In 1931, he headed the World Disarmament Conference, receiving his Peace prize three years later (and one year after visiting Herr Hitler in Germany to try to promote an armament limitation plan).

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