Captain William Hay
CB (1794 – 29 August 1855) was the second and last junior Joint
Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis
The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis is the head of London's Metropolitan Police Service. Sir Mark Rowley was appointed to the post on 8 July 2022 after Dame Cressida Dick announced her resignation in February.
The rank of Commissione ...
, one of two heads of the
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
Metropolitan Police.
Family
He was descended from
John Hay, 1st Marquess of Tweeddale
John Hay, 1st Marquess and 2nd Earl of Tweeddale (c. 13 August 1625, Yester, East Lothian – 11 August 1697, Edinburgh) was Lord Chancellor of Scotland.
Early life
Hay was born in 1626. He was the eldest son of John Hay, 1st Earl of Tweeddale ( ...
(1626–1697), whose third son, Lord Alexander Hay (1663–1737) was his great-grandfather. Alexander married Katherine Kerr, an heiress with property in
Berwickshire
Berwickshire ( gd, Siorrachd Bhearaig) is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area in south-eastern Scotland, on the English border. Berwickshire County Council existed from 1890 until 1975, when the area became part of t ...
and
East Lothian. Their third son, William (1699–?), married the daughter of Sir Robert Sinclair of Stevenson. William had three sons, including Robert, who later entered the
83rd Regiment of Foot, reached the rank of captain and married Catherine, the daughter of Ralph
Babington, of Greenfort, County Donegal, in 1791. They had three children, of whom William was the eldest.
Military career
In 1807, Hay was enrolled into the
Royal Military College, Great Marlow
The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...
. He was commissioned as
ensign
An ensign is the national flag flown on a vessel to indicate nationality. The ensign is the largest flag, generally flown at the stern (rear) of the ship while in port. The naval ensign (also known as war ensign), used on warships, may be diffe ...
without purchase, with seniority dated 30 January 1810, in the
52nd Light Infantry.
His first active service occurred in 1810 as the result of threatened disturbances in London following the arrest of
Sir Francis Burdett
Sir Francis Burdett, 5th Baronet (25 January 1770 – 23 January 1844) was a British politician and Member of Parliament who gained notoriety as a proponent (in advance of the Chartists) of universal male suffrage, equal electoral districts, vo ...
, a reformist politician, who was charged with libelling the House of Commons and sent to the Tower of London. All military units within several days marching of the capital were ordered to and to be quartered in London. The 52nd was ordered up from its base in
Chatham and was billeted in a warehouse in Dean Street, Soho. Hay and his unit were to remain in London for three weeks, without incident, before returning to Chatham.
From 1810 to 1811, Hay served with the 52nd Light Infantry during the
Peninsular War
The Peninsular War (1807–1814) was the military conflict fought in the Iberian Peninsula by Spain, Portugal, and the United Kingdom against the invading and occupying forces of the First French Empire during the Napoleonic Wars. In Spain ...
. On 16 July 1811, while still abroad, he was promoted lieutenant and transferred to the
12th Light Dragoons. Hay continued to serve with the 12th throughout the war and also later at the
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...
. He was later to write, for his daughter, a full account of his reminiscences of his time serving Wellington between 1808 and 1815. After the war, he was appointed as
aide-de-camp on the staff of the
Earl of Dalhousie
Earl of Dalhousie, in the County of Midlothian, is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, held by the Chief of Clan Ramsay.
History
The family descends from Sir George Ramsay, who represented Kincardineshire in the Scottish Parliament in 1617. ...
, then Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia. He took up this post in 1817 and served in the North American Provinces until 1823.
Since 1822, Hay had held the rank of captain with the
37th Regiment of Foot
The 37th (North Hampshire) Regiment of Foot was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, raised in Ireland in February 1702. Under the Childers Reforms it amalgamated with the 67th (South Hampshire) Regiment of Foot to become the Hampshire ...
, on half-pay by purchase, and in 1824 he was successful in effecting an appointment as a full-pay captain in the
5th Dragoon Guards
The 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Dragoon Guards was a British army cavalry regiment, officially formed in January 1686 as Shrewsbury's Regiment of Horse. Following a number of name changes, it became the 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) ...
. In 1829, Hay retired from military service and married Sarah Sparkes.
Police career
Having then lived for two years in Surrey, followed by seven in Scotland, Hay then came to London, where on 10 December 1839 he took up an appointment as the first inspecting superintendent of the Metropolitan Police. This post was effectively the chief deputy to the two joint commissioners,
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Rowan and
Richard Mayne
Sir Richard Mayne KCB (27 November 1796 – 26 December 1868) was a barrister and the joint first Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, the head of the London Metropolitan Police (1829–1868). With an incumbency of 39 years, he was ...
, and broke the rule established by
Sir Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet, (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850) was a British Conservative statesman who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835 and 1841–1846) simultaneously serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer ...
that, apart from the two commissioners, all police officers should be promoted from the ranks. This was not the first time Hay had served under Rowan, who was his senior in the 52nd Light Infantry during the Peninsular War.
In 1849, Hay was awarded the
Military General Service Medal
__NOTOC__
The Military General Service Medal (MGSM) was a campaign medal approved in 1847 and issued to officers and men of the British Army in 1848.Including officers and men of the King's German Legion, Brunswick Oels and Chasseurs Britanniques ...
with five clasps (Fuentes D’Onor, Vittoria, St Sebastian, Nivelle and Nive) for his service in the war. He was also awarded the
Waterloo Medal
The Waterloo Medal is a military decoration that was conferred upon every officer, non-commissioned officer and soldier of the British Army (including members of the King's German Legion) who took part in one or more of the following battles: Li ...
, which had been instituted by order of the Prince Regent in 1816.
In 1850, on the retirement of Sir Charles Rowan, Hay was made one of the joint commissioners of the Metropolitan Police and sworn in as a
Justice of the peace. His position was junior to Richard Mayne, who had been appointed along with Rowan in 1829. Mayne and Hay did not get along, and Hay was soon complaining to the
Home Office about his colleague. He was particularly angered that Mayne took personal charge of the policing of the
Great Exhibition in 1851, a job which Hay, as a military man, thought should have gone to him. Hay was, however, appointed
Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1851 for his involvement in the Exhibition, although Mayne was appointed to the higher grade of Knight Commander for his involvement at the same time.
In 1852, the crowds coming to pay their respects at the lying-in-state of the
Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, (1 May 1769 – 14 September 1852) was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish soldier and Tories (British political party), Tory statesman who was one of the leading military and political figures of Uni ...
got out of hand and it was reported that one or two people had been crushed to death. There was criticism of the police, and Hay had a paragraph inserted into the newspapers claiming that Mayne had been responsible. Mayne was, unsurprisingly, furious. In 1853, Hay submitted plans for police reorganisation to the Home Office without first showing them to Mayne.
Hay died at his home, 67
Cadogan Place, on 29 August 1855.
His death certificate records the cause as "Scirrhus
form of cancerof the Oesophagus and Exhaustion".
[Death Certificate: Registration District, St Luke Chelsea, Vol 1a, Page 105] Following his death, it was decided that thereafter there should be only a single commissioner for the Metropolitan Police, as formalised by the
Metropolitan Police Act 1856
The Metropolitan Police Act 1856The citation of this Act by this short title was authorised by the Short Titles Act 1896, section 1 and the first schedule. Due to the repeal of those provisions it is now authorised by section 19(2) of the Interpr ...
.
Footnotes
References
*
''The Times'' Digital Archive
*Martin Fido & Keith Skinner, ''The Official Encyclopedia of Scotland Yard'' (Virgin Books, London:1999)
*Willian Hay, with notes and commentary by Andrew Bamford, ''Reminiscences 1808-1815 Under Wellington'' (Helion Books 2017)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hay, William
12th Royal Lancers officers
Commissioners of Police of the Metropolis
1794 births
1855 deaths
Companions of the Order of the Bath
British Army personnel of the Napoleonic Wars
British Army personnel of the Peninsular War
Recipients of the Waterloo Medal
Graduates of the Royal Military College, Great Marlow
52nd Regiment of Foot officers
37th Regiment of Foot officers
5th Dragoon Guards officers