Violet Mary Pope and Lieutentant-Colonel A.R. Haig-Brown, D.S.O.
Violet was the second of four daughters of Alfred and Elizabeth Pope. She was born at South Walk House, Dorchester, on 3rd October 1880.
On the subject of her education, R.G. Bartleot waxes lyrical on the benefits of women being brought up to strengthen the domestic sphere, and hence being so important to the nation’s war effort:
In modern
times the education of a girl is governed by an expansive view of the widening possibilities
of the so-called “feminine sphere” – a movement which was only in its beginning
in the later decades of the Victorian era and has hardly yet gained its full
momentum. Without disparagement of
pioneer methods in the education of girls, which have opened recently so many
new avenues of employment and utility to women, it may be said that the older
types of training, more conservative of energies than productive of the, gave
to the nation’s service women of no mean worth – the wives and mothers of the
men who have fought this war. The full
measure of the sacrifice and the suffering necessary for the combating of evil in
the world has been demanded of them, and borne with a fortitude and magnanimity
surpassing the famous examples of Sparta and Rome. Their moral fibres have been tried to the
full in a fiery furnace, and, no less than those of the men they nursed or the
men they wedded, have come forth strengthened and glorified by the test. Truly has it been said that, for the first
time in her history as a nation, Great Britain has organized for this struggle
the whole of her national resources; among the greatest and most powerful of
these stand the co-operation and devotion of women – an old capacity revealed
anew.
Violet was educated, first at home and then at a private school in Bath between the ages of fourteen and nineteen. From there she spent eighteen months in Paris before returning to spend her time at South Walk House and Wrackleford House. She was fond of riding and driving and a lover of animals and country pursuits. She played the organ for the services at St. Mary’s, Stratton and arranged the flowers there.
In 1907 she married Alan Roderick Haig-Brown, youngest son of Rev. William Haig-Brown, headmaster of Charterhouse School where many of the Popes had been educated. Bartelot described him as, `a sportsman, poet and soldier.’ He too was educated at Charterhouse and the Pembroke College, Cambridge from where he graduated in 1899. He gained his football blue and played in the F.A. Cup for Corinthians and as an amateur in the Football League for Tottenham Hotspur, Clapton Orient and Brighton and Hove Albion.
On leaving Cambridge he became a schoolmaster at Lancing College and wrote many articles for the press, mainly on the subjects of sport and nature. He was appointed Second Lieutenant in the Lancing College Cadet Corps in 1900, affiliated to the Royal Sussex Regiment. It was claimed that the corps was the only one in the country to enlist every member of the school on a voluntary basis before the outbreak of the war.
During the early part of the war he lectured on musketry before being appointed to the rank of Major and leaving for France in May 1916. On the death in action of his commanding officer, Alan was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and fought at the Somme and Ypres. He was mentioned in despatches in April 1917 and won the Distinguished Service Order in June. After a spell in England to regain his health, his division was sent to Italy to rebuff a push by German-Austrian forces. He was again mentioned in despatches before being recalled to the Western Front in February 1918 following the exit of Russia from the war.
Germany began a huge spring offensive and on Monday 25th March 1918 Alan’s unit put up a rear-guard fight against overwhelming odds. Withdrawal was held off until the last minute and Alan, directing the retreat, was killed instantaneously by the fire of a machine-gun at close range. Alan was one of three officers of the Middlesex Regiment killed in that action, one of the others being Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British Army and by coincidence also a former Tottenham Hotspur footballer.
Alan received many tributes:
His first Adjutant wrote:-
"It is
only today that I have heard of the passing over of Colonel Haig-Brown. I think
that I knew him better than most people who had the honour of serving under
him, for I became his Adjutant on the same day that he assumed command of the
battalion and thus was in a very intimate association with him day and night
until I was wounded last June. My sympathy is thus linked with every personal
sorrow; for my chief-almost my only- reason for wishing to return was in order
to be with him again. Never was a C.O. so entirely beloved by all who knew him.
He made the battalion what it was-keen and contented-and by his personal
example instilled courage and efficiency in those with him."
One of his Subalterns wrote:-
"I am
sure it will help you to know what affection, and almost reverence, everyone
who served in the 23rd holds Colonel Haig-Brown's memory. There was not a
single man in the battalion who did not love him. Nor did he, like some C.O.s,
consider his men at the expense of his officers. None of us subalterns ever
wished to serve under a finer man, and it has been our hope that when we go out
again we should have the privilege of serving under him."
A Company Commander wrote:-
"It
has been my privilege to serve under your husband for some years, both at
Lancing and afterwards abroad. As one of his Company Commanders for nearly a
year, both on the Somme and in Belgium, I can assure you of the love of the
whole battalion, both officers and men, for their Colonel, The men adored him.
Great as was our admiration for him as a soldier, it was the man behind this
that won us all, and kept us cheerful among many unpleasant surroundings."
Another Subaltern wrote:-
"The
men, as did all of us officers, recognised in our C.O. the practical expression
of the highest and noblest ideals which could permeate a man and a soldier, and
our C.O. was unquestionably both; and thus our loss is indeed a severe one.,
and will be most keenly felt by officers and men alike. Words cannot in any
degree express the depth of sincerity of the feelings which, deep in our
hearts, we had for our C.O., and which I verily believe, will never with any of
us fail to be a source of inspiration and help at all times. Whatever our own
shortcomings, his presence amongst us will remain as a treasured memory."
His Divisional General wrote:-
"He
was one of the very best commanding officers, always ready for whatever was to
be done, cheerful under the hardest conditions, and was ever ready for the
welfare of his men. He is a very great loss to the battalion and the
Army."
The Assistant Chaplain General wrote:-
"I
don't think I have ever come across an instance of such regret, and even love,
as was felt by officers and men of his battalion for him. You may indeed be
very, very proud of his memory. A more gallant and cheery C.O. never commanded
a battalion. From what I hear, he gave his life in seeing that others got clean
away, and died, as he had lived, for the men he commanded."
R.G. Bartelot wrote movingly of Alan’s death in the Pope memorial book that:
It was an
end such as a man of his calibre would have chosen to a career of which his
wife may well be proud. Every man’s
life, surely, fulfils its intention on earth in the unfathomable purpose of God’s
creation, and, “when the harvest is come, immediately He putteth in the sickle.” There is no sadness in the transfer of human
activities to a wider and worthier work-field beyond, except for those who are
left behind to await reunion in the unknown land, which, always so near to all
of us, seems at times to be so far away.
There must ever be sorrow in parting, but from sorrow is born new strength
and greater consecration of resolve.
Perhaps the final word should go to his son Roderick who commemorated Alan as
`an
Edwardian: one of the young, the strong, the brave and the fair who had faith
in their nation, their world and themselves.’
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