Hardiman had won the commission in competition with his fellow sculptors Gilbert Ledward and William Macmillan. His winning model showed Haig riding a classical charger befitting a hero, derived from Hardiman's studies of renaissance equestrian sculpture. The Press and Lady Haig weighed in, asking why Earl Haig could not be portrayed with realism riding his own horse, Poperinghe. Eventually Hardiman was asked to produce a second model, but in trying to accommodate his critics the sculptor produced a compromise that pleased no-one. The design went back to Cabinet and they were persuaded to allow him a free hand in the execution of the full-sized statue, George Lansbury writing: "I feel confident that if your genius is unfettered you will give us a memorial worthy of the Field Marshal, the n