Douglas Haig

Field Marshal Haig was a British Army officer during the First World War. He ordered that "Every position must be held to the last man." In 1918, Harriet Derbyshire recalled this order when a nurse at St Teilo's Military Hospital told her that the soldiers admitted there would be back at the front as soon as they were "better". (TV: To the Last Man)

Behind the scenes

 * To the Last Man does not specify Haig's first name, but the quoted order is unmistakeably a reference to the real Douglas Haig's "Backs to the Wall" order issued on 11 April 1918.
 * Haig was played by Geoffrey Palmer in the BBC sitcom Blackadder Goes Forth.