Maurice Haigh-Wood

Maurice Haigh-Wood (1896–1980): TSE’s brother-in-law. He was eight years younger than his sister Vivien, and after attending Malvern School, trained at Sandhurst Military Academy before receiving his commission on 11 May 1915 as a second lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment. He served in the infantry for the rest of the war, and on regular visits home gave TSE his closest contact with the nightmare of life and death in the trenches. After the war, he found it difficult to get himself established, but became a stockbroker, and he remained friendly with, and respectful towards, TSE even after his separation from Vivien in 1933. He told Valerie Eliot, on 8 Jan. 1965: ‘It is just upon fifty years since Tom & I first met, & I have loved him as a sort of elder brother ever since. He has been a splendid influence all my life.’ In September 1968 he told Robert Sencourt – as Sencourt reiterated to Valerie Eliot (2 Sept. 1968) – ‘I had the greatest admiration & love for Tom whom I regarded as my elder brother for fifty years, & I would never think of acting against his wishes.’ In 1930 he married a 25-year-old American dancer, Ahmé Hoagland, and they had two children.