Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hay, Arthur
HAY, ARTHUR, ninth Marquis of Tweeddale (1824–1878), soldier, traveller, and naturalist, born at Yester, 9 Nov. 1824, son of George, eighth marquis [q. v.], studied at Leipzig, and afterwards at Geneva under D'Aubigné, the historian. He became ensign and lieutenant in the Grenadier guards in 1841, and four years later took part in the arduous campaign of the Sutlej as aide-de-camp to the governor-general [see Hardinge, Henry, Lord]. In 1846 he made a tour in the further Himalayas, and soon after returned to his regiment in England, having been promoted to a company. In 1851 he travelled in Germany and Austria, and finally reached Constantinople. In December 1854 he returned to the East as captain and lieutenant-colonel, and served during the rest of the Crimean war, never having been absent from duty for a day, except when attacked by cholera. He returned to England in 1856 by way of Greece, Italy, and Switzerland, and did not again go on active service. The remainder of his life was devoted to ornithology, a science in which he had already made his first steps in 1845, when he contributed to a Madras journal some descriptions of rare birds from the Straits archipelago. In 1860 he obtained his colonelcy, and retired from half-pay six years later. By the death of his brother George in December 1862 he became heir to the title and estates, but did not assume the courtesy earldom, being known as ‘Viscount Walden.’ He settled at Chislehurst, where he built a house, grew roses, and was made successively fellow of the Royal Society and of the Linnean Society, and president of the Zoological Society of London. In 1876 he succeeded to the marquisate. At Yester he was a source of much good to the tenantry and neighbourhood, providing them with a medical officer at a fixed salary, and founding a library and reading-room, besides giving aid to the schools. In December 1878 he died at Chislehurst, after five days' illness. He married first, in 1857, Hélène, daughter of Count Kilmansegge, Hanoverian minister in London; she died on 30 Sept. 1871; and secondly, in 1873, Julia, daughter of William Stewart Mackenzie of Seaforth.
Tweeddale's fine character was generally recognised. His letters to his family during the Crimean war show the cheerful stoicism of a gentleman, and intelligent interest in his profession. Some letters from him to George Robert Gray [q. v.], the zoologist, in 1869 are in the British Museum (Eg. MS. 2348, ff. 229, 231). Dr. Thomson, his first tutor, says of his earlier years that ‘he was remarkable for shrewdness of observation, diligence in study, and amiable disposition. … Though somewhat shy and retiring to strangers, he was very unselfish and considerate.’
The evidence on military matters which he gave before a committee of the commons in 1869 contains bold and clear statements, and suggests reforms of which several have been since adopted. Hay's ornithological works, which had appeared between 1844 and 1879 as contributions to the ‘Madras Journal of Literature and Science,’ the ‘Proceedings of the Zoological Society,’ the ‘Ibis,’ the ‘Annual and Magazine of Natural History,’ and the ‘Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal,’ were collected after his death and published privately in 1 vol. London, 1881, 4to, the editor being his nephew, Captain R. E. Wardlaw Ramsay. A memoir of the author by Dr. W. H. Russell was prefixed.
[The memoir above mentioned.]