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11a. Bird is free, say, to go back on branch
PARTRIDGE

24a. Widespread destruction making Caesar's spirit cry
HAVOC

8d. Garment put on as protection for work
JACKET

1a. Mercy shown by men producing old weapon
QUARTERSTAFF

5d. Top places for driving with success? That's about right
TEE SHIRT

Parses for the above please.

8 D. Double definition- 'protection for work' has 'work' in a crossword clue sense, meaning a book, and jacket/garment.

5 Tees, places for driving, on a golf course, with Hit, success, and R, right, inside

From Julius Caesar: Antony imagines Caesar's spirit joining in the exhortations to rise up: "raging for revenge, with Ate by his side come hot from hell, shall in these confines with a Monarch's voice cry 'Havoc!' and let slip the dogs of war."

Quarter = mercy; staff = men.

Branch = PART ( a trail might branch)

free= RID

say = for example = EG (reversed)

Cheers Malone and HW7, I was completely lost, especially the Caesar reference.

14d. A puzzle like this for the provost of Eton?
EGGTIMER

8d. Having just shed a pound, put on ten stone
ONYX

6d. People feeling regret about old battle
POITIERS

Parses for the above please.

According to the internet, " the pioneering Times setter Adrian Bell remarked that "the provost of Eton, MR James, timed his breakfast egg by the time it took him to do the Times crossword puzzle "

ONLY - L + X

PITIERS around O

Cheers, buddy.
The Provost of Eton must've have very hard boiled eggs.

24d. Article the writer penned is the last word
AMEN

10a. Well-positioned female and not from Hamlet's place
ELSIE

5a. It's not easy for a head to lie like this
CROWNED

19a. Give out final insert for illustration
VIGNETTE

Parses for the above please.

24 ME in AN
10 Hamlet's place was ELSINORE - take the NOR out. I don't know why "well-positioned", though
5 quote from Shakespeare's Henry IV "Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown"
19 has anagram of GIVE, and is an illustration, but I don't see where the rest comes from