power of the modern general is not evident in any of the old symbols.

It was really the army that chose Sir Douglas to be Commander-in-Chief.
Whenever the possibility of the retirement of Sir John French was
mentioned and you asked an officer who should take his place, the answer
was always either Robertson or Haig. In any profession the members
should be the best judges of excellence in that profession, and through
eighteen months of organizing and fighting these two men had earned the
universal praise of their comrades in arms. Robertson went to London and
Haig remained in France. England looked to them for victory.

Birth was kind to Sir Douglas. He came of an old Scotch family with fine
traditions. Oxford followed almost as a matter of course for him and
afterward he went into the army. From that day there is something in
common between his career and Sir William's, simple professional zeal
and industry. They set out to master their chosen calling. Long before
the public had ever heard of either one their ability was known to their
fellow soldiers. No two officers were more averse to any form of public
advertisement, which was contrary to their instincts no less than to the
ethics of soldiering. In South Africa, which was the practical school
where the commanders of the British Army of to-day first learned how to
command, their efficient staff work singled them out as coming men. Both
had vision. They studied the continental systems of war and when the
great war came they had the records which were the undeniable
recommendation that singled them out from their fellows. Sir John French
and Sir Ian Hamilton belonged to the generation ahead of them, the
difference being that between the '50s and the '60s.

It was the test of command of a corps and afterward of an army in
Flanders and Northern France which made Sir Douglas Commander-in-Chief,