Ancient history
The origin of the first Worcester Wargames Club is now obscure and misted by the passage of much time. The oldest surviving members were at school together, or were friends, in and around Worcester in the early 1970s. ‘New blood’ has been joining through the years since then. Initially linked by the tiny shop on Worcester’s Friar Street, Worcester Models, better known to all as “Trev’s”. In later times the word was spread by classified adverts in Military Modelling or Wargames Illustrated. The group’s venue also changed over the years. Above a pub, at the local YMCA (I know you’re singing it!), and even at the city’s Commandery museum for a while.
Friends
So why the Friends of General Haig? We started to wonder what to call ourselves when we discovered there was another group in the city calling themselves the Worcester Wargames Club (you know you’ve become a bit isolated when this happens!), and the majority of the members no longer actually lived in Worcester, some not even being in the UK. The new name was decided following, of course, a heated debate in a pub. The debate was something about the effectiveness of the various WW1 armies by 1918. Someone (for sake of argument let’s call them Pete) advocated that the German’s, with their Storm Troopers and Kaiserschlacht, had shown the most innovation. Others claimed it was of course the British, with their artillery, infantry platoon training, tanks, etc. etc. that was far superior. The evening ended with someone saying “Well, it comes down to one thing. You’re either a Friend of General Haig, or you’re not!”. That was it, the group’s name was born.
Post Script
As part of the group’s rehabilitation of the pub naysayer, the individual was gifted different biographies and histories of Haig at every following Christmas until they ‘agreed’ with the consensus. Hoorah!
The Friends of General Haig 