James Hay, Lord Hay

Who was James Hay, Lord Hay?

James Hay, Lord Hay and Lord Slains was a British aristocrat and soldier.

James Hay was the son of William Hay, 17th Earl of Erroll and his wife Alicia Eliot.

Hay, an ensign in the 1st Foot Guards, was killed at the Battle of Quatre Bras while serving as aide-de-camp to General Maitland. Had he lived, he would have succeeded his father as Earl of Erroll upon his death in 1819; as it was, his brother William who succeeded to that title.

In 1899 Murray's Magazine published some recollections by Georgiana, Dowager Lady De Ros about Duchess of Richmond's ball that took place on 15 June 1815. She recalled "I remember being quite provoked with poor Lord Hay, a dashing merry youth, full of military ardour, whom I knew very well for his delight at the idea of going into action, and of all the honours he was to gain; and the first news we had on the 16th was that he and the Duke of Brunswick were killed".

Circa 1890, Hay's remains were moved to the crypt under The British Waterloo Campaign Monument in The Brussels Cemetery at Evere.