William Gosse Hay (17 November 1875,
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
– 21 March 1945,
Victor Harbor) was an Australian author and essayist.
History
W. G. Hay was born at "Linden" in the eastern suburbs of
Adelaide
Adelaide ( ) is the capital city of South Australia, the state's largest city and the fifth-most populous city in Australia. "Adelaide" may refer to either Greater Adelaide (including the Adelaide Hills) or the Adelaide city centre. The dem ...
, the second son of
Alexander Hay a wealthy merchant, pastoralist and politician, and his second wife Agnes Grant Hay, née Gosse.
He was educated by a private tutor on his parents' cattle station, then at
Melbourne Grammar School
(Pray and Work)
, established = 1849 (on present site since 1858 - the celebrated date of foundation)
, type = Independent, co-educational primary, single-sex boys secondary, day and boarding
, denominatio ...
, subsequently at
Trinity College, Cambridge
Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...
, where he studied law.
William Gosse Hay and Mary Violet Williams were married on 26 October 1901 at the chapel of
St. Peter's College, where her late father, Rev.
Francis Williams, had been head master. They lived until 1924 at
Beaumont
Beaumont may refer to:
Places Canada
* Beaumont, Alberta
* Beaumont, Quebec
England
* Beaumont, Cumbria
* Beaumont, Essex
** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s
* Beaumont Street, Oxford
France (communes)
* Beaumont, Ardèche
* ...
then moved to
Victor Harbor.
Hay's mother and sister were lost at sea aboard the
SS Waratah
SS ''Waratah'' was a passenger and cargo steamship built in 1908 for the Blue Anchor Line to operate between Europe and Australia. In July 1909, on only her second voyage, the ship, en route along the coast of the Colony of Natal (part of mod ...
in July 1909. In 1911, as administrator of the estate of his brother Alexander Gosse Hay (1874–1901), he was involved in legal argument related to the insurance paid out on the destruction by fire of his parents' Victor Harbor home "Mt. Breckan", to which he had an option to purchase. He suffered a breakdown and that same year he and his wife visited Tasmania, where he gathered historic material for his writing.
He died at Victor Harbor after collapsing during an attempt to save his home from a
bushfire
A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identif ...
.
[
]
Family
William had a brother and two sisters and eight half-brothers and sisters, and many notable relatives including:
* brother-in-law William Christie Gosse
William Christie Gosse (11 December 1842–12 August 1881), was an Australian explorer, who was born in Hoddesdon,"Gosse, William Christie (1842–1881)". ''Australian Dictionary of Biography'', Online Edition. Australian National University ...
, who, by virtue of W.G. Hay's father marrying W.C. Gosse's sister, was also his uncle
* nephew Sir James Hay Gosse
Sir James Hay Gosse (21 December 1876 – 14 August 1952) was an Australian businessman, sportsman, and philanthropist. He was involved with a number of different companies and community organisations in and around Adelaide, South Australia.
Earl ...
* grand-nephew George Gosse
William Gosse Hay married Mary Violet Williams ( – 31 May 1949) on 26 October 1901. They lived at "Tower House" on Beaumont Common
Beaumont may refer to:
Places Canada
* Beaumont, Alberta
* Beaumont, Quebec
England
* Beaumont, Cumbria
* Beaumont, Essex
** Beaumont Cut, a canal closed in the 1930s
* Beaumont Street, Oxford
France (communes)
* Beaumont, Ardèche
* ...
, later moving to "Nangawooka" near Victor Harbor in 1924. They also built a seaside place at Seacliff
Seacliff comprises a beach, an estate and a harbour. It lies east of North Berwick, East Lothian, Scotland.
History
The beach and estate command a strategic position at the mouth of the Firth of Forth, and control of the area has been conte ...
. They had three sons:
*Alick
*William
*Andrew Gosse Hay
Publications
*''Stifled laughter : a melodrama'' / William Gosse Hay. London : John MacQueen, 1901 was published with financial assistance of his mother. Later works (all after the first published as "William Hay") were all historical novels set in convict-era Tasmania; all were published in London and were soon out of print:
*''Captain Quadring'' (1911)
*''Herridge of Reality Swamp'' (1905)
''The escape of the notorious Sir William Heans (and the mystery of Mr. Daunt) a romance of Tasmania by William Hay''
London : Allen & Unwin 1918
NLA catalogue
(Also )
*''Strabane of the Mulberry Hills : the story of a Tasmanian lake in 1841'' / by William Hay. London : George Allen & Unwin, 1929
NLA catalogue
*''The Mystery of Alfred Doubt'' (1935)
Critical reception
The Australian novelist Christina Stead
Christina Stead (17 July 190231 March 1983) was an Australian novelist and short-story writer acclaimed for her satirical wit and penetrating psychological characterisations. Christina Stead was a committed Marxist, although she was never a mem ...
recommended Hay's 1918 novel and noted that Patrick White
Patrick Victor Martindale White (28 May 1912 – 30 September 1990) was a British-born Australian writer who published 12 novels, three short-story collections, and eight plays, from 1935 to 1987.
White's fiction employs humour, florid prose, ...
also admired it:
I have just finished a truly remarkable novel...: ''The Escape of the Notorious Sir William Heans (and the Mystery of Mr. Daunt)''... by author William Hay..., writing about the penal settlement days in Tasmania (one of our worst convict settlements, that of Port Arthur). Given to me by friend-novelist Patrick White: he so greatly admires it that he "keeps buying it and giving it away." This magnificent writer is a most serious deepdyed scholar, student of the epoch and his work is a sort of epic, an Inferno, not the usual horror-story of beatings and killings in prison... an ascent from Avernus. (...) One of his wonders is his extraordinary use of the human face as a stage for conflicting emotions — often all at once!
Tributes
The 3rd issue of 1946 of the Australian literary magazine "Southerly" was devoted to the works of W. G. Hay.
References
External links
Tower House at Beaumont, ca. 1910, home of William and Mary Hay from 1902-1924.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, William Gosse
1875 births
1945 deaths
20th-century Australian novelists
Australian essayists
Male essayists
Australian male novelists
20th-century essayists
20th-century Australian male writers