Malcolm Vivian Hay

Major Malcolm Vivian Hay of Seaton (1881–1962) was an officer in the Gordon Highlanders, the head cryptographer of the British War Office in the First World War, a historian of Catholic and Jewish history, and the last Laird of Seaton House in Aberdeen, Scotland. The grounds of the estate are now Seaton Park. Early life Malcolm Hay was born in London to James Gordon Hay and Elizabeth Forbes, and was the grandson of Lieutenant-General James Hay (1786-1862). He had an elder brother, Gilbert, who died in infancy, and a younger brother, Cuthbert. At the age of two, James Gordon Hay died, and Malcolm inherited the estate. He was educated first at St Basil's grammar school at Frognall Hill, and then at St John's, a Jesuit preparatory school near Windsor. Hay's mother died in 1892, and he was subsequently raised by his aunt Georgina Hay, a former abbess at Sedan before the Franco-Prussian war, in France against the wishes of his father's will. As a young man, Hay did not attend a university, but was self-educated, studying Italian. He lived in Paris, but he returned to Scotland in 1807, joining the 3rd Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders as an officer and managing his estates. In 1911, he travelled to Ireland to gather information on the Republican movement for Parliament. He also engaged in politics, defending the Catholic Church's interests in Quebec. Unlike other members of his class, Hay was a liberal and a Scottish nationalist. First World War Although Hay was a member of the Militia, he joined the 1st Battalion of the Gordon Highlanders, and saw action early in the First World War in Belgium. At the Battle of Mons, he was severely wounded in the head and taken prisoner by the Germans and imprisoned at Wurzburg. His wound caused his right side to be paralysed, and he had to re-learn how to walk. In 1915, Evelyn, Princess Blücher, whose brother knew Hay, arranged for his release and he became the first British officer to be released and returned to the United Kingdom in the war. In 1916, he published Wounded and a Prisoner of War based on his experiences.