Lord Edward Douglas John Hay DL (2 November 1888 – 18 June 1944) was a British soldier, at the time of his death

commanding officer The commanding officer (CO) or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually given wide latitu ...

of the

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

. Hay saw active service in the First World War, after which he was posted on diplomatic missions. He was killed by a German V-1 flying bomb.

Life

Born on 2 November 1888 in

East Lothian East Lothian (; sco, East Lowden; gd, Lodainn an Ear) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In 1975, the histo ...

, Scotland, Hay was the younger son of

William Hay, 10th Marquess of Tweeddale William Montagu Hay, 10th Marquess of Tweeddale, KT, DL (29 January 1826 – 25 November 1911), known before 1878 as Lord William Hay or Lord William Montagu Hay, was a Scottish landowner, peer and politician. He was born at Yester House, near ...

, of

Yester House Yester House is an early 18th-century mansion near Gifford in East Lothian, Scotland. It was the home of the Hay family, later Marquesses of Tweeddale, from the 15th century until the late 1960s. Construction of the present house began in 1699, ...

, Hay was the brother and heir-presumptive of the 11th Marquess.LIEUTENANT COLONEL Lord EDWARD DOUGLAS JOHN HAY, Service Number: 24133
cwgc.org, accessed 20 December 2020 He attended

Ludgrove School Ludgrove School is an English independent boys preparatory boarding school. Ludgrove was founded in 1892 at Ludgrove Hall in Middlesex by the Old Etonian sportsman Arthur Dunn. Dunn had been employed as a master at Elstree School, which sent boys ...

. Hay saw active service in the 1914–1918 War at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

, and in Egypt and France.''

Burke's Peerage Burke's Peerage Limited is a British genealogical publisher founded in 1826, when the Irish genealogist John Burke began releasing books devoted to the ancestry and heraldry of the peerage, baronetage, knightage and landed gentry of Great Br ...

'', volume 3 (2003), p. 3965 He was at the Paris Peace Conference from 1919 until it concluded in 1920. After that, as a Captain in the Grenadier Guards he was Staff Captain to

General Sir Edmund Ironside Field Marshal William Edmund Ironside, 1st Baron Ironside, (6 May 1880 – 22 September 1959) was a senior officer of the British Army who served as Chief of the Imperial General Staff during the first year of the Second World War. Ironside ...

for Special Missions to Hungary and Romania, then from 1921 to 1923 was Military Secretary to

Sir Herbert Samuel Herbert Louis Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel, (6 November 1870 – 5 February 1963) was a British Liberal politician who was the party leader from 1931 to 1935. He was the first nominally-practising Jew to serve as a Cabinet minister and to beco ...

High Commissioner for Palestine The High Commissioner for Palestine was the highest ranking authority representing the United Kingdom in the mandated territories of Palestine and the High Commissioner for Transjordan was the highest ranking authority representing the United King ...

. Hay was also a member of

Essex County Council Essex County Council is the county council that governs the non-metropolitan county of Essex in England. It has 75 councillors, elected from 70 divisions, and is currently controlled by the Conservative Party. The council meets at County Hall ...

. In 1938, he was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for Essex, and was then of Hill Hall,

Theydon Mount Theydon Mount is a village and civil parish in the Epping Forest district of the county of Essex, England. The village is notable for the Grade I listed Elizabethan mansion, Hill Hall. History The name "Theydon" is thought to mean 'valley wher ...

. He was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in the

Essex Regiment The Essex Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment served in many conflicts such as the Second Boer War and both World War I and World War II, serving with distinction in all three. ...

and then returned to the Grenadier Guards to command his old regiment.

Marriages and children

In 1917, Hay married firstly Violet Florence Catherine Barclay, known as Bridget, only daughter of Major Cameron Barclay. They had two children, Marioth Christina Hay (1918–2006) and David George Montagu Hay (1921–1979), later 12th Marquess of Tweeddale."Tweeddale, Marquess of (S, 1694)", www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk, accessed 20 December 2020 His first wife died on 17 March 1926. On 5 July 1928, Hay married secondly Audrey Clara Lilian Birkin, a younger daughter of Sir Thomas Latham, 1st Baronet. She was recently divorced from Sir Tim Birkin,

Baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

, a racing driver, and Hay became the step-father of her two small daughters, Pamela and Sara.

Anthony Cave Brown Anthony Cave Brown (21 March 1929 – 14 July 2006) was a British journalist, espionage non-fiction writer, and historian. Early years Brown. was born in Bath, and moved to London as a boy, stuffing propaganda leaflets into bombs meant for N ...

, ''"C": The Secret Life of Sir Stewart Graham Menzies, Spymaster to Winston Churchill'' (London: Macmillan, 1987), p. 718 Together they had a daughter, Caroline Susan Elizabeth Hay (1930–2020).

Death

On 12 June 1944, the Germans launched Operation ''Eisbär'', a campaign of

V-1 flying bomb The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...

attacks on the London area. On Sunday, 18 June, just after 11 a.m., a V-1 made a direct hit on the

Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks The Royal Military Chapel, commonly known as the Guards' Chapel, is a British Army place of worship that serves as the religious home of the Household Division at the Wellington Barracks in Westminster, Greater London. Completed in 1838 in the sty ...

, during a service. This brought the chapel’s concrete roof down on top of the congregation, killing 121 people, with 141 seriously injured. The rubble within the chapel was ten feet deep in places. When the roof collapsed, Hay was just walking back to his seat, after reading a lesson, and was among those killed. He was buried in

, Essex.https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/K19C-1BN/lieut-colonel-lord-edward-douglas-john-hay-1888-1944

Later events

Coat of arms of the marquess of Tweeddale

Hay’s widow married twice more. Firstly, in 1948, Niall Greville Chaplin, younger son of Eric Chaplin, 2nd Viscount Chaplin, from whom she was divorced in 1952, and in December 1952 Major General Sir Stewart Graham Menzies,

Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service The chief of the Secret Intelligence Service serves as the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, also commonly known as MI6), which is part of the United Kingdom intelligence community. The chief is appointed by the foreign secretary, ...

. Hay’s son,

David Hay David Hay (born 29 January 1948) is a Scottish former football player and manager. He broke into the Celtic team in the late 1960s, as one of a generation of players who continued a highly successful era for the club. A contract dispute betwe ...

, succeeded as Marquess of Tweeddale in 1967. He married twice and had five children, the eldest of whom, born in 1947, was named Edward Douglas John Hay, after his grandfather, and became 13th Marquess.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, Edward Douglas John 1888 births 1944 deaths Burials in Essex Military personnel from East Lothian Deputy Lieutenants of Essex Essex Regiment officers Grenadier Guards officers British Army personnel of World War I British Army personnel killed in World War II Younger sons of marquesses Deaths by airstrike during World War II People educated at Ludgrove School