6th Battalion (attached to 1st Battalion) Middlesex Regiment
Lieutenant Douglas Woulfe Hay was born on 31 January 1897, the only son of Lieutenant Colonel H T Hay, late of Indian Army and 2nd/4th Battalion Northumberland Fusiliers, and Margaret M Hay, of Stanley Lodge, Battledown, Cheltenham. Douglas attended Cheltenham College between 1911 and 1916 and thereafter the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.
He was gazetted as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 6th Battalion Middlesex Regiment in October 1916. On being posted to France, he was attached to the 1st Battalion Middlesex Regiment and was awarded the Military Cross for his part in the actions on the Hindenburg Line in 1917, near Bullecourt, as part of the Arras Offensive. This award was recommended by General Plumer, commanding Second Army.
Lieutenant Douglas Woulfe Hay MC was killed in action whilst leading his platoon against a German strong point at the Battle of the St Quentin Canal on 29 September 1918, aged 21. He is buried at Villers Hill British Cemetery, Villers Guislain and is commemorated on the Cheltenham War Memorial and in the Chapel of the Royal Military College. The above photograph was found attached to his headstone, upon a visit to this cemetery in May 2010.