Josslyn Hay
22ndEarl of Erroll
Lord Erroll in 1941
Tenure	1928 – 1941
Predecessor	Victor Hay, 21st Earl of Erroll
Successor	Diana Hay, 23rd Countess of Erroll
Other titles	Baron Kilmarnock
Known for	Fascist sympathizer; murder victim
Born	(1901-05-11)11 May 1901 Mayfair, London, England
Died	24 January 1941(1941-01-24) (aged 39) Ngong,British Kenya
Cause of death	Gunshot wound
Nationality	British
Residence	Nairobi, Kenya
Spouses	Lady Idina Sackville ​ ​ (m. 1923; div. 1930)​ Edith Maude Ramsay-Hill ​ ​ (m. 1930; died 1939)​
Issue	Diana Hay, 23rd Countess of Erroll
Father	Victor Hay, 21st Earl of Erroll
Mother	Lucy Mackenzie
Occupation	Landowner

Josslyn Victor Hay, 22nd Earl of Erroll (11 May 1901 – 24 January 1941)^[1] was aBritish peer and a member of theBritish Union of Fascists, known for the unsolved case surrounding his murder and the sensation it caused duringwartime in Britain.

Hay was the eldest son of the diplomatVictor Hay, Lord Kilmarnock (laterEarl of Erroll) and his wife Lucy, the only daughter ofSir Allan Mackenzie, 2nd Baronet. In 1911, he attended the coronation ofGeorge V and carried his grandfather'scoronet.^[2] He began atEton College in 1914 but was dismissed two years later.

Although possessing one of Scotland's most distinguished titles, the earls, by this time, had no wealth, and had to develop careers to earn their living. In 1920, Hay was appointed honoraryattaché atBerlin under his father, who was earlier appointedchargé d'affaires there before the arrival ofEdgar Vincent, 1st Viscount D'Abernon.^[3] His father was soon appointedHigh Commissioner to the Rhineland, but Hay stayed in Berlin and served under Lord D'Abernon until 1922.

After passing theForeign Office examinations, Hay was expected to follow his father into diplomacy but instead became infatuated with LadyIdina Sackville, a daughter ofGilbert Sackville, 8th Earl De La Warr, the divorced wife of the politicianEuan Wallace and the wife of Charles Gordon. Lady Idina soon divorced her second husband in 1923 and she and Hay were married on 22 September 1923.^[1]

After causing a society scandal due to their marriage – she was twice-divorced, notoriously unconventional in many ways, and eight years his senior – Hay and his wife moved toKenya in 1924, financing the move with Idina's money. Their home was a bungalow on the slopes of theAberdare Range which they calledSlains, after the former Hay family seat ofSlains Castle which was sold by Hay's grandfather, the20th Earl, in 1916. The bungalow was sited alongside the high-altitude farms which other white Kenyans were establishing at the time.

TheHappy Valley set were a group of elite, colonialexpatriates who became notorious fordrug use,drinking,adultery andpromiscuity, among other things. Hay soon became a part of this group and accumulated debts. Hay had inherited his father's titles in 1928 and his wife divorced him in 1930 because he was cheating her financially. Hay then married the divorced Edith Maude ("Molly") Ramsay-Hill on 8 February 1930. They lived inOserian, aMoroccan-style house on the shores ofLake Naivasha, and his new wife became involved with thehedonistic lifestyle of Happy Valley.

On a visit to England in 1934, Lord Erroll joinedOswald Mosley'sBritish Union of Fascists and on his return to Kenya a year later, became president of theConvention of Associations. He attended thecoronation of George VI and Elizabeth in 1937 and was elected to the legislative council as the member forKiambu in 1939.^[4] On the outbreak ofWorld War II that year, Lord Erroll became acaptain in theKenya Regiment and accepted the post ofMilitary Secretary for East Africa in 1940.

On 13 October 1939, Lady Erroll died. In 1940, Lord Erroll met at theMuthaiga Country Club, and subsequently had an affair with,Diana, Lady Broughton, the wife ofSir Jock Delves Broughton, Bt. (and, ultimately, who married after Delves Broughton's death,the 4th Baron Delamere).^[5]

Delves Broughton learned of the affair and after spending a night with Lady Broughton, Lord Erroll was found shot dead in hisBuick at a crossroads on theNairobi-Ngong road on 24 January 1941. Sir Jock was accused of the murder, arrested on 10 March and stood trial from 26 May. There were noeyewitnesses to the killing; the evidence against him proffered in court was weak; and his barber^[6] was alsoforeman of the jury. Sir Jock wasacquitted on 1 July. He died bysuicide in England a year later.

Numerous books, dramatisations (see below), and articles have been written on the murder mystery and various theories have been argued; the murder may have been solved by material discovered in 2007 suggesting that Delves Broughton was guilty after all.^[7]

Lord Erroll is buried in the graveyard of St Paul's Anglican Church inKiambu, Kenya, next to his second wife, Molly.^[8] His earldom andlordship of Hay passed to his only child,Diana, by his first wife, while hisbarony of Kilmarnock passed to his brother,Gilbert, who changed his surname to Boyd in 1941.^[9][10]

• The BBC television dramaThe Happy Valley, first transmitted on 6 September 1987, told the story of Erroll's murder, as seen through the eyes of the 15-year-oldJuanita Carberry,^[11] daughter of John Carberry (10thBaron Carbery) to whom Broughton confesses his guilt even before he is arrested.^[12]
• The incident inspiredJames Fox's 1982 investigative book,White Mischief, which was adapted into the 1988film of the same title byMichael Radford. Erroll was portrayed by the actorCharles Dance.
• The case featured in the documentaryAltitude, Alcohol and Adultery, directed by Vanni Ocleppo and first broadcast onBBC1 on 4 June 1993.
• The incident was also adapted into an episode of the seriesJulian Fellowes Investigates: A Most Mysterious Murder –The Case of the Earl of Erroll in 2005.
• Hay’s murder and the subsequent trial ofSir Jock Delves Broughton, Bt., are referenced inLucinda Riley’s novelThe Sun Sister.
• British authorRhys Bowen used the murder of Erroll as inspiration for the murder committed in her 2019 novelLove and Death Among the Cheetahs.

• List of unsolved murders (1900–1979)

• Davenport-Hines, Richard –Hay, Josslyn Victor, twenty-second earl of Erroll (1901–1941), colonist in Kenya and philanderer –Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Trzebinski, Errol.The Life and Death of Lord Erroll: The Truth Behind the Happy Valley Murder (Fourth Estate, 2000)ISBN 978-1-8570-2437-1
• Genealogy website

• Hansard 1803–2005:contributions in Parliament by the Earol of Erroll
• Josslyn Hay's burial site in Kiambu, Kenya

• 1901 births
• 1941 deaths
• British emigrants to British Kenya
• British people murdered abroad
• British Union of Fascists politicians
• Deaths by firearm in Kenya
• Diplomatic peers
• Earls of Erroll
• English people of Scottish descent
• Kenya Regiment officers
• Members of the Legislative Council of Kenya
• People educated at Eton College
• People from Mayfair
• People murdered in Kenya
• Unsolved murders in Kenya
• British Army personnel killed in World War II
• Politicians killed in World War II

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from October 2021