The Famous Faces of Clan Hay

Born in Edinburgh in 1798, David Ramsay Hay was a prominent artist, colour theorist and interior designer. He is perhaps best known for decorating the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh for Queen Victoria, in 1850, and Abbotsford, the home of Sir Walter Scott, in 1820. Hay wrote about his experience of creative decorative schemes for Abbotsford in his six-part series of books on colour theory, The Laws of Harmonious Colouring Adapted to Interior Decorations.

He died in his home city in 1866, and is buried in Warriston Cemetery in the north of Edinburgh.

George Dewey Hay was born in Indiana in 1895, and he played a huge role in the country music scene in Tennessee, developing the promotion and commercialisation of the genre. He was the founder of the Grand Ole Opry, which is still going strong today, often called the ‘home of American music’.

In 1925, Hay began presenting a show on the Nashville radio station WSM-AM, playing old-time music every Saturday evening. Originally called the WSM Barn Dance, it was George D. Hay who renamed it the Grand Ole Opry, a name which stuck. He continued to be involved with the Opry for many years after he stopped presenting the show, and even wrote a book about it in 1945. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966, and passed away two years later in Virginia.

George Campbell Hay was born in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, in 1915. The only son of novelist John Macdougall Hay, it could be said that literary talent was in his blood, as he went on to become one of Scotland’s most prominent interwar poets.

His poetry is unique as it’s written in all three of Scotland’s main literary languages, English, Scots and Gaelic, unlike the work of his contemporaries like Sorley MacLean who wrote in just one or two of these languages. It’s his Gaelic poetry that is particularly lauded, however, and his technical skills have seen him dubbed as a “poets’ poet”. An ardent Scottish nationalist, his work is infused with his political beliefs, along with his experience serving in North Africa with the Royal Army Ordnance Corps during World War Two.

Originally from Saltcoats on the west coast of Scotland, Colin Hay emigrated to Australia with his family in 1967 when he was 14 years old. In 1978, he formed the band Men at Work with his friend, Ron Strykert. The band is best known for the worldwide chart-topping hit, ‘Down Under’, and became the first Australian artists to simultaneously have a no.1 album and single in the United States. As ‘Down Under’ sat at the top of the Billboard singles chart, the album ‘Business as Usual’ topped the album chart.

Colin Hay served as the main singer until the band broke up in 1985, and has enjoyed success as a solo artist ever since.

Born in 1869 to a Scottish father in Lanark, Illinois, Helen Scott Hay is recognised for her contributions to nursing during World War One. She led a group of nurses with the American Red Cross in 1914, serving in Kiev and Bulgaria where she set up a training school for nurses. She was given the role of Director of the Bureau of Nursing Instruction for the American Red Cross in 1917, and became the Chief Nurse of the Red Cross Commission in Europe in 1920.

Various accolades were awarded to her in honour of her contribution to nursing, including a Florence Nightingale Medal, the Gold Cross of St. Anna in Russia and the Bulgarian Royal Red Cross.

Born in the Hay family seat of Duns Castle in 1799, Robert Hay was an early Egyptologist who first visited Alexandria in Egypt whilst serving in the Royal Navy in 1818. He travelled to Egypt in 1824, and stayed there for four years, then again from 1829 to 1834, where he spent time recording monuments and inscriptions. His manuscripts are now in the British Library, and his plaster casts are in the British Museum, both in London. Many of his ancient Egyptian artefacts were sold to the British Museum after his death in 1863, and some can even be found in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. This month we also have an interview with Aline and Alick Hay, current residents of Duns Castle which is only 5 miles from our ScotlandShop HQ and one of our favourite places for a walk around the lake of a Sunday afternoon.