Sir John Hay Drummond Hay GCMG KCB PC (1 June 1816 – 27 November 1893) was the United Kingdom's Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Morocco in the 19th century.[1][2]

Sir John Hay Drummond Hay
Envoy Extraordinary to Morocco
In office
1845–1886
Succeeded bySir William Kirby Green
Personal details
Born
John Hay Drummond Hay

(1816-06-01)1 June 1816
Valenciennes, France
Died27 November 1893(1893-11-27) (aged 77)
Wedderburn Castle, Scotland

Early life

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John Drummond Hay was born in 1816 in Valenciennes, France,[1] where his father Captain Edward Drummond Hay, a nephew of the ninth Earl of Kinnoul, was serving in the British army of occupation.[3]

Like his elder brother, Edward Hay Drummond Hay, he was educated at the Edinburgh Academy,[4] and then at Charterhouse School.[1]

At the age of 24, he was appointed a paid attaché to the Embassy of Constantinople, where he remained for four years, and was then sent to Morocco to assist his father the Agent and Consul-General in his communications with the Court of Morocco during the difficulties with the French Government. In this mission he displayed so much ability that a few months afterwards, though still having merely the rank of a paid attaché, he succeeded his temporary chief as Agent and Consul-General.[5]

Diplomat

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Thus began diplomatic activity, involving considerable personal initiative and freedom of action, which lasted without interruption for more than 40 years. During this long period his intelligence, energy, and thorough knowledge of the Oriental character enabled him to exercise an amount of influence, both with the Government and with the native of all classes with whom he came in contact, such as had never been enjoyed by any of his predecessors, and such as none of his successors is ever likely to obtain. He belonged, in fact, to a category of diplomatists who are very useful in semi-civilized countries, but who are no longer to be found so near to Europe, and who are not well adapted to the present methods of bureaucratic and Parliamentary control.

 
The British mission to Morocco in 1880, led by Sir John Hay Drummond Hay (seated, right).[6]

In 1845, he acted as a mediator in the difficulties which Morocco had with Denmark, Sweden, and Spain. In that capacity, he signed the convention which the Sultan concluded with the Court of Madrid. In 1856 he negotiated and signed the Anglo-Moroccan Accords, a general treaty and a commercial convention with the Moroccan government. He was raised five years afterwards to the rank of Minister Resident.

In 1861 he was appointed by Emperor Pedro II of Brazil a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Rose.[7] His further promotion to the rank of Minister Plenipotentiary took place in 1872, and to that of Envoy Extraordinary in 1880.[8]

He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (GCMG) in 1884.[9]

In July 1886, he retired on a pension, and was sworn a Privy Councillor,[10] but he continued to reside privately a great part of the year in the country where he had served his country, so long and so successfully. He died at Wedderburn Castle, near Duns, in Scotland.[2]

Writings

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References

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  1. ^ a b c Parish, William Douglas (1879). List of Carthusians, 1800–1879. Lewes: Farncombe and Co. p. 114. OCLC 37118353. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  2. ^ a b "Obituary: Sir John Drummond Hay". The Times of London. London. 29 November 1893. p. 7. Retrieved 8 May 2010.
  3. ^ Khalid Ben-Srhir (2004). Britain and Morocco During the Embassy of John Drummond Hay. Routledge. ISBN 9780203494974. Retrieved 4 January 2014.
  4. ^ The Edinburgh Academical Club (1914). The Edinburgh Academy Register 1824-1914. Retrieved 2 August 2021.
  5. ^ "No. 20456". The London Gazette. 25 March 1845. p. 953.
  6. ^ https://www.judaisme-marocain.org/objets_popup.php?id=469 [bare URL]
  7. ^ The foreign officer list and diplomatic and consular hand book January 1877, pg 114. Available at Google Books
  8. ^ "No. 24819". The London Gazette. 2 March 1880. p. 1790.
  9. ^ "No. 25420". The London Gazette. 5 December 1884. p. 5669.
  10. ^ "No. 25614". The London Gazette. 6 August 1886. p. 3779.

Further reading

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  • Ben-Srhir, Khalid. (2005). Britain and Morocco During the Embassy of John Drummond Hay, 1845–1886. Taylor & Francis.
  • Rigg, J. M. (2004). "Hay, Sir John Hay Drummond- (1816–1893)". Lynn Milne, ed. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary of the United Kingdom to Morocco
1829–1845
Succeeded by
Sir William Kirby Green


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