Charles Hay, 20th Earl of Erroll


Charles Gore Hay, 20th Earl of Erroll, KT, CB, styled Lord Hay until 1891, was a Scottish soldier and Conservative politician.

Early life

Hay was the eldest surviving son of eight children born to Eliza Amelia Gore and William Harry Hay, 19th Earl of Erroll.
His paternal grandparents were William Hay, 18th Earl of Erroll and Elizabeth Hay, Countess of Erroll. His maternal grandfather was General the Hon. Sir Charles Stephen Gore, KH, GCB, a Waterloo officer.

Career

Lord Hay was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards on 7 July 1869. He was promoted to lieutenant on 19 August 1871, to captain on 11 September 1875, to major on 1 July 1881, to lieutenant-colonel on 24 September 1887, and to colonel on 18 January 1895.
Following the outbreak of the Second Boer War in late 1899, he volunteered for active service and was commissioned in the Imperial Yeomanry. He took part in the Battle of Paardeberg, following which he was in charge of prisoners from Piet Cronjé's army. In early March 1900 he took command of a yeomanry brigade in the South Africa Field Force, with the rank of brigadier general. The following year he was in June 1901 appointed Assistant Adjutant-General. He was later an Honorary Major-General in the British Army and a Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the Royal Horse Guards. He went on to serve as General Officer Commanding 65th Division between 1915 and 1916.

Peerage and political career

He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1891. Lord Erroll served in the Conservative administration of Arthur Balfour as a Lord-in-waiting from 1903 to 1905. In 1901 he was made a Knight of the Thistle.

Personal life

In 1875, he was married to Mary Caroline L'Estrange, daughter of Edmund L'Estrange by his wife Harriet Susan Beresford Lumley-Savile. Together, they were the parents of three sons:
He died in July 1927, aged 75, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son Victor, who held the title for less than a year before his death on 20 February 1928 when he was succeeded by his eldest son, Josslyn. Lady Erroll died in 1934.

Descendants

Through his eldest son, and heir, Victor, he was a grandfather of Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll, Gilbert Boyd, 6th Baron Kilmarnock, and Lady Rosemary Hay, who.