In Haig's Shadow: The Letters of Major-General Hugo De Pree and Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig

Hugo de Pree was the cousin of the better-known Field Marshall Douglas Haig. However, de Pree had a distinguished military career in his own right.

Educated at Eton and RMA Woolwich, de Pree grew up alongside Haig, primed for a career in the military. He served in the Boer War before the First World War began. He was sent to the Western Front, as Chief of Staff of IV Corps, coming into contact with his cousin at the Battle of Cambrai in 1917.

He continued his accession through the ranks, and was Commander of 189 Brigade, 63rd Royal Navy Division, at the Great Retreat of March 1918, bringing him much closer to the front line than most British generals in the First World War. During the Battle of the Somme, de Pree made a tough decision to change tactics, a decision that lost him his job, until he was reinstated after appeal.

De Pree saw out the War with the 115 Brigade, and, before his death in 1943, commanded the 13th Indian Infantry Brigade. He died whilst his son, John de Pree, was in a Prisoner of War camp.

This book, by one of the leading academics in this field, weaves together his letters and other writings, with incisive commentary to give a vivid insight into the life of a brigade commander in the First World War.

Born in 1961, Gary Sheffield studied history at the University of Leeds, before beginning to lecture on war studies at the Royal Military Sandhurst Academy. He then completed his PhD at King’s College, London.

After finishing his studies, Sheffield moved into full-time academia, as Professor of Modern History at King’s College, and then the first Professor of War Studies at the University of Birmingham. He later moved to the University of Wolverhampton.

Sheffield has been published widely on military history subjects, with his second book, The Chief: Douglas Haig and the British Army (2011) widely commended in both academic and popular circles alike.

Sheffield currently serves as Vice President of the Western Front Association and sits on the Advisory Board of the Royal United Services Institute.