Sir John Hay Drummond Hay (1 June 1816 – 27 November 1893) was the United Kingdom's Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Morocco in the 19th century.
Contents
Early life
John Drummond Hay was born in 1816 in Valenciennes, France, where his father Captain Edward Drummond Hay, a nephew of the ninth Earl of Kinnoul, was serving in the British army of occupation. His mother was Louisa Margaret Thomason.
Like his elder brother, Edward Hay Drummond Hay, he was educated at the Edinburgh Academy, and then at Charterhouse School.
Career
At the age of 24, he was appointed a paid attaché to the Embassy of Constantinople, where he remained for four years. He was then sent to Morocco to assist his father, who was serving there as Agent and Consul-General. Within a few months, he was promoted; though still having merely the rank of a paid attaché, he succeeded his temporary chief as Agent and Consul-General.
Drummond Hay's diplomatic service in Morocco would continue for more than forty years, and would involve considerable personal initiative; he was able to exercise significant freedom of action and independence from bureaucratic and political control. Over his lengthy time in Morocco, he developed significant influence both with the Moroccan government and with the Moroccan public at large, aided by his facility for languages.