Josslyn Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll

Josslyn Victor Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll (11 May 1901 – 24 January 1941) was a British peer and a member of the British Union of Fascists, known for the unsolved case surrounding his murder and the sensation it caused during wartime in Britain.

Early life Hay was the eldest son of the diplomat Victor Hay, Lord Kilmarnock (later Earl of Erroll) and his wife Lucy, the only daughter of Sir Allan Mackenzie, 2nd Baronet. In 1911, he attended the coronation of George V and carried his grandfather's coronet. He began at Eton College in 1914 but was dismissed two years later.

Although possessing one of Scotland's most distinguished titles, the earls, by this time, had no wealth, and had to develop careers to earn their living. In 1920, Hay was appointed honorary attaché at Berlin under his father, who was earlier appointed chargé d'affaires there before the arrival of Edgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon. His father was soon appointed High Commissioner to the Rhineland, but Hay stayed in Berlin and served under Lord D'Abernon until 1922.

After passing the Foreign Office examinations, Hay was expected to follow his father into diplomacy but instead became infatuated with Lady Idina Sackville, a daughter of Gilbert Sackville, 8th Earl De La Warr, the divorced wife of the politician Euan Wallace and the wife of Charles Gordon. Lady Idina soon divorced her second husband in 1923 and she and Hay were married on 22 September 1923. On the outbreak of World War II that year, Lord Erroll became a captain in the Kenya Regiment and accepted the post of Military Secretary for East Africa in 1940.

On 13 October 1939, Lady Erroll died. In 1940, Lord Erroll met at the Muthaiga Country Club, and subsequently had an affair with, Diana, Lady Broughton, the wife of Sir Jock Delves Broughton, Bt. (and, ultimately, who married after Delves Broughton's death, the 4th Baron Delamere).

Murder Delves Broughton learned of the affair and after spending a night with Lady Broughton, Lord Erroll was found shot dead in his Buick at a crossroads on the Nairobi-Ngong road on 24 January 1941. Sir Jock was accused of the murder, arrested on 10 March and stood trial from 26 May. There were no eyewitnesses to the killing; the evidence against him proffered in court was weak; and his barber was also foreman of the jury. Sir Jock was acquitted on 1 July. He died by suicide in England a year later.

Numerous books, dramatisations (see below), and articles have been written on the murder mystery and various theories have been argued; the murder may have been solved by material discovered in 2007 suggesting that Delves Broughton was guilty after all.

Lord Erroll is buried in the graveyard of St Paul's Anglican Church in Kiambu, Kenya, next to his second wife, Molly. His earldom and lordship of Hay passed to his only child, Diana, by his first wife, while his barony of Kilmarnock passed to his brother, Gilbert, who changed his surname to Boyd in 1941.

In popular culture The BBC television drama The Happy Valley, first transmitted on 6 September 1987, told the story of Erroll's murder, as seen through the eyes of the 15-year-old Juanita Carberry, daughter of John Carberry (10th Baron Carbery) to whom Broughton confesses his guilt even before he is arrested. The incident inspired James Fox's 1982 investigative book, White Mischief, which was adapted into the 1988 film of the same title by Michael Radford. Erroll was portrayed by the actor Charles Dance. The case featured in the documentary Altitude, Alcohol and Adultery, directed by Vanni Ocleppo and first broadcast on BBC1 on 4 June 1993. The incident was also adapted into an episode of the series Julian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder – The Case of the Earl of Erroll in 2005. Hay’s murder and the subsequent trial of Sir Jock Delves Broughton, Bt., are referenced in Lucinda Riley’s novel The Sun Sister. British author Rhys Bowen used the murder of Erroll as inspiration for the murder committed in her 2019 novel Love and Death Among the Cheetahs.

Ancestry