Victor Hay, 21st Earl of Erroll

Victor Alexander Sereld Hay, 21st Earl of Erroll and 4th Baron Kilmarnock, KCMG (17 October 1876 – 20 February 1928), styled Lord Kilmarnock from 1891 to 1927, was a British diplomat, a writer and briefly a member of the House of Lords, who was "noted for his tact and charm."

Career The young Hay entered the diplomatic service and was promoted Attaché, 1900, Third Secretary in July 1902, Second Secretary, 1906, First Secretary, 1913. He was First Secretary in Copenhagen, 1918–19, then briefly Chargé d'Affaires in Berlin, on the United Kingdom's resumption of diplomatic relations with Germany in 1920, until the arrival of a British Ambassador. He remained in Berlin as Counsellor until November, 1921, and served finally as British High Commissioner to the Inter-Allied Rhineland High Commission, from December 1921 until his death in February 1928.

He was also an author and belonged to the St James's Club. He had two plays published and produced in London, The Dream Kios and The Anonymous Letter.

Personal life In 1900, he married Mary Lucy Victoria Mackenzie, only daughter of Sir Allan Mackenzie, 2nd Baronet, of Glen Muick, Aberdeenshire. She inherited a fortune made by her grandfather in the indigo trade in India.

Josslyn Victor Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll (1901–1941), who married Lady Idina Sackville, daughter of the 8th Earl De La Warr, in 1923. Today, his son and heir is best known for the unsolved case surrounding his murder and the sensation it caused during wartime in Britain.

Shooting incident On Wednesday 31 August 1910, Lord Kilmarnock was one of a shooting party at Balmoral, with George V and friends. Captain Hood (later to become a rear admiral) accidentally shot Kilmarnock, who was in a shooting butt near him. Kilmarnock's glasses were broken, and he sustained a "slight abrasion". The Buchan Observer reported:

Publications Ferelith, 1903 The Dream Kiss (play), produced at the Wimbledon Theatre, 1924 The Anonymous Letter (play), produced at Q Theatre, 1927

Ancestry