MEMOIR 
MAJOR ROBERT WORSE LEY HAIG, R.A., F.R.S. 
MAJOR-GEN. .T. H. LEFROY, R.A., F.R.S. 
Robert Wolseley Haig, late Secretary to this Institution, was one of whom it 
is difficult for friends to speak without using language which may seem exaggerated 
to those to whom he was not personally known. His endowments of intellect 
were unusual; but those who admired his talents most, were in one sense least 
conscious of his superiority, because they had even more prominently before them 
that lovable simplicity of character, that inborn manliness, modesty, and humble 
estimate of himself, which is not always an attribute of genius, and which, when it 
exists, makes genius command lifelong affection. His character was as pure as it 
was elevated—full of playfulness, until bodily suffering laid its hand on him; 
but even then, brave, patient, and cheerful under it, submissive to that all-wise 
decree which cut so early the brightest ties of domestic happiness, and apparently 
unconscious how many would look long round the horizon of life before such 
another light to them would rise above it. He was, perhaps, one of the best 
mathematicians who ever entered the Artillery in the pre-competitive period. 
Applications of analysis were to him so easy, that he was hardly aware how 
exceptional his powers were; and they were at the service of all his friends, or at 
the command of the numerous committees with which he was associated from time 
to time, without a pretension on his part. They were never, indeed, adequately 
brought out; for as Astronomer of the North-West Boundary Commission, precise 
observation was more requisite than analysis; but if a question requiring the 
calculus of probabilities arose,* or some mechanical fact were wanted—such as 
the place of the centre of gravity of a solid of irregular form and densityf—Major 
Haig was ready at once, not with a “practical” or tentative solution, but with a 
precise one; and he handled his integral tables as other people do logarithmic 
ones. It is to be regretted that he did not write more; but this was very much an 
effect of that total absence of pretension already remarked. His early contributions 
* See secs. 134-143 of Captain W. H. Noble’s second Report on Ballistic Experiments. 1865. 
f See Vol. VII. p. 212, where the determination in the note is Major Haig’s, who however would 
not attach his name. 1871. 
