Born at
Yester House the eldest son of
George Hay, 7th Marquess of Tweeddale and Lady Hannah Charlotte Maitland (a daughter of
James Maitland, 7th Earl of Lauderdale), Hay was educated at the
Royal High School in
Edinburgh and
commissioned as an
ensign in the
52nd Light Infantry in June 1804. After succeeding to his father's title as Marquess of Tweeddale in August 1804, he was promoted to
lieutenant on 12 October 1804 and, having received his first training under
Sir John Moore at
Shorncliffe, he served as an
aide-de-camp in
Sicily in 1806. He transferred to the
Grenadier Guards with the rank of lieutenant in the regiment and
captain in the Army on 12 May 1807. He was immediately promoted to
lieutenant colonel. Hay made an attempt to fight to the death but was taken
prisoner of war by the Americans. He was elected a
representative peer for Scotland in July 1818, appointed
Knight of the Thistle in 1820 and became
Lord Lieutenant of East Lothian in February 1823. He was also promoted to
colonel on 27 May 1825 and to
major-general on 10 May 1837. Meanwhile, on his estate, he developed an improved method of making tiles for draining which was
patented in October 1839. In 1842 Hay returned to public service when he was appointed
governor of Madras and also, by special arrangement of the Duke of Wellington,
Commander-in-Chief of the
Madras Army. he retired from active service and returned to his estate in Scotland again in 1848. and invited to join a
Royal Commission established in July 1858 to inquire into the organization of the army then serving under the
East India Company. He was advanced to
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 9 November 1862 and to
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 13 March 1867 before being further promoted to
field marshal on 29 May 1875. Hay also served as colonel of the
30th Regiment of Foot, then of the
42nd Regiment of Foot and finally of the
2nd Regiment of Life Guards. A strong man, he once drove the
mail coach from
London to
Haddington without a halt or a rest. He died, following injuries sustained during a fire at his home, at
Yester House on 10 October 1876 and was buried in the family burial vault at the Church of St. Cuthbert at Yester in Scotland. ==Family==