Marquess of Tweeddale

A carte-de-visite portrait of the Marquess of Tweeddale (1787-1876).

The Scottish soldier and administrator George Hay was born at Bonnington in Angus on 1 February 1787 and educated at the Royal High School, Edinburgh. He succeeded as 8th Marquess Tweeddale in 1804, when his father died while imprisoned in France during the Napoleonic Wars.

A professional soldier, he fought in the Anglo-American War of 1812 as a lieutenant-colonel of the 100th Regiment of Foot. He eventually rose to the rank of Field Marshal and served as Governor of Madras in India. In 1820 he was admitted to the Order of the Thistle.

On 28 March 1816 Lord Tweeddale married Lady Susan Montagu, a younger daughter of the 5th Duke of Manchester. They had fourteen children.

Lord Tweeddale died at Yester in Scotland on 10 October 1876.

Photographed by Camille Silvy of London on 30 April 1861.