The other day I wandered into the Guards Chapel in Birdcage Walk, London, and saw commemororated on the roll of honour, the name ‘Edward Hay, Lord’. In the churchyard at St Michael’s, Theydon Mount is a Commonwealth War Grave to Lord Edward Douglas John Hay, who until his tragic death had lived at Hill Hall, Theydon Mount.
Lord Hay was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Grenadier Guards and was killed, along with some 120 others on Sunday 18th June 1944 when the Guards Chapel was hit by a flying bomb during divine service. The chapel was completely destroyed, but was subsequently rebuilt.
Edward Hay was the son of William Montague Hay, 10th Marquess of Tweeddale and the Marchioness Tweedale. He was married to Audrey Latham, daughter of Sir Thomas Latham.
He served in the 1914-18 War. He was Staff Captain to General Sir Edmund Ironside. From 1921 - 1923 he was Military Secretary to the Rt. Hon. Sir Herbert Samuel.
The chapel is well worth a visit if you are in London, together with the Guards Museum which is opposite.