Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

An Inter-War M.B.E. group of seven awarded to Captain the Honourable I. J. L. Hay, 5th (Royal Irish) Lancers, whose account of his capture at Le Cateau on 26 August 1914, and subsequent imprisonment, was published in the Daily Telegraph after his release in 1918

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Civil) Member’s 1st type breast badge, silver, hallmarks for London 1927; 1914 Star, with clasp (2.Lieut: Hon: I. J. L. Hay. 5/Lrs.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt. Hon. I. J. L. Hay); Jubilee 1897, silver, unnamed as issued; Coronation 1911, unnamed as issued; Special Constabulary Long Service Medal, G.V.R., 2nd issue (Comdt. The Hon. Ivan Hay.) mounted as worn, traces of lacquer, about very fine (7) £800-£1,200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Barry Hobbs Collection of Great War Medals.

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M.B.E. London Gazette 3 June 1932: Captain the Honourable Ivan Josslyn Lumley Hay, Commandant, Metropolitan Special Constabulary.

Captain The Honourable Ivan Josslyn Lumley Hay, third and youngest son of Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Charles Gore Hay, 20th Earl of Errol and Mary Caroline L’Estrange, was born in October 1884 in Sligo, Ireland. He served as Page of Honour to Queen Victoria, 1896-1901, and King Edward VII, 1901, and was educated at Eton, 1898-1901, before being commissioned into the 5th Lancers on 12 June 1901.

Mobilised from the Special Reserve on the outbreak of the Great War, Second Lieutenant Hay served with the 5th Lancers on the Western Front from 17 August 1914 and was captured during the retreat near Le Cateau on 26 August 1914, an event which was noted in the regimental history:
‘August 25th. -... The situation became difficult; the whole of the German efforts were concentrated on the British Corps, the left of which was threatened; and on the night of the 25th-26th, the 1st British Corps was attacked in its quarters between Landrecies and Le Cateau. The Coldstream Guards were brought up by motor-car during the night to protect headquarters; the fighting was of extreme violence, but the morale of the British was not lowered. The retreat was carried on methodically, under the direction of Sir Douglas Haig, and the rear-guard retired fighting, the men sleeping little or not at all, and singing, as the marched, such songs as “Annie Laurie” or “Hold your hand out naughty boy.”
This day the Hon. I. J. L. Hay, of the Special Reserve of the 5th Lancers, and who had served since the Regiment had embarked at Dublin, was cut off and taken prisoner, where he remained for practically the remainder of the war.’ (The History of the 5th Royal Irish Lancers by Colonel J. R. Harvey, D.S.O. refers)

In a letter written to his father, dated 22 June 1918 (later published in the Daily Telegraph), Hay confirms much concerning the systematic brutality shown towards prisoners by the Germans during the early period of the war. The letter begins by describing how he was marched into the town of Le Cateau together with around 60 French prisoners where they were halted in the main street and made to stand with their backs to the houses. Here, two rows of German soldiers guarded them with bayonets held against their stomachs. The letter continues:
‘Two hours later, after the British had retired, a Hun under-officer pricked a French officer with his bayonet. The Frenchman grasped the bayonet to protect himself, whereupon the N.C.O. shrieked, “prisoners resist, Fire!” The guard, who, as I say, were practically touching us, let off four rounds rapid. About eleven Frenchmen were killed and about ten seriously wounded.
The poor French officer dropped, riddled with bullets, and after he was on the ground dead, the Huns near him again and again plunged their bayonets into his corpse. Next to me were the only four English prisoners. A Corporal of Horse of the 1st Life Guards fell, luckily for him, at the first shot, hit only in the cheek. A Corporal of the second shared the same fate, shot in the neck. Two Hussars (19th, I think) fell. One got all four bullets in the stomach, the other three in the arms, one in the stomach. Then a German sergeant-major came up and said, “As it is only the French who have mutinied, do not shoot the remaining Englander (me) but shoot all the French, curse them!” The rifle of the front-rank Hun, which was actually touching me, and jammed, and the rear-rank man, a vindictive little brute, who kept shouting “Englander! Schweinhund!”, let his piece off four times in my face, but managed to miss me entirely, though by the four marks against the door against which I was standing two bullets must have passed a hair’s breadth on each side of my face. Luckily I remembered enough German to thrust myself in between the remaining French and the firing party and say to the Hun sergeant-major “you cannot murder prisoners in cold blood. At least send for an officer first.” To my astonishment he agreed, and did so. The officer, on arrival, said humanely, “Enough have been killed; take the swine to the church”.
After three days we were marched to Mons. There were five officers of various (three of them wounded) and 180 men of all regiments, and about 800 French. I shall not forget that march. All three days we were continually passing German troops. The cavalry prodded us with their lancers, the artillery and engineers struck at us with their whips, and the tired infantry cursed us, and spat on our clothes as we passed.’

Hay’s letter goes on to describe the remainder of his time in captivity, highlighting further mistreatment in a succession of prison camps: Mons - ‘nine men in a stifling room the size of a London bathroom’; Torgau-am-Elbe - ‘freezing with a diet of coffee and soup’; Burg - ‘sharing with the Russians who were damn good fellows’ and then transferred to a criminal jail with 39 British officers as a reprisal for the treatment of German submarine crews in England; Crefeld - ‘decent commandant, old Hussar officer. Allowed to do exactly as we liked’; Schwarnstadt - ‘Leaky wooden huts, infested with vermin. Conditions intolerable. Beaten from the lager to station, carrying our own baggage, by a special “strafe battalion” sent for the purpose’; Holzminden - ‘Worst of all. If lucky one meal a day, after standing hours in a cooking queue. Knocked out of bed with butts of rifles at dawn most morning. Commandant frequently drunk, and when drunk used to make sentries and guard fire volleys through windows. God knows why nobody was hit.’

In 1918, whilst still in captivity, Hay’s promotions to Lieutenant and Captain were gazetted and ante-dated to 12 June 1914 and 6 August 1917 respectively. He was repatriated on 18 November 1918 and relinquished his commission on 7 December 1921, retaining the rank of Captain.

After the war, Captain the Honourable I. J. L. Hay continued his career in the insurance industry and served as Commandant of the Metropolitan Special Constabulary for which services he was created a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1932 King’s Birthday Honours.