Thomas William Hay

Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas William Hay was a British military officer and politician, who served as the Conservative Member of Parliament for South Norfolk in 1922–1923.
Hay was the son of Admiral Lord [John Hay (Royal Navy officer, born 1827)|Lord John Hay], and was educated at Clifton College. During the First World War he served with the Leicestershire Yeomanry and the 16th Lancers, and was mentioned in despatches.
In the 1922 [United Kingdom general election], he was the Conservative candidate for South Norfolk; the Liberal Party did not stand a candidate, leaving a direct contest between Hay and the incumbent Labour member, George Edwards, who had won the seat in South Norfolk by-election|a 1920 by-election]. Hay won by a small majority. However, at the subsequent 1923 general election he was defeated by Edwards. Hay thus sat for slightly under a year, one of the shortest-serving MPs in history. He did not contest the 1924 general election, which saw the seat return to Conservative control.
During the Second World War, Hay served with the Royal [Air Force Volunteer Reserve], rising to the rank of squadron leader.