John MacDougall Hay explained

John MacDougall Hay (23 October 1880 – 10 December 1919)^[1] was a Scottish novelist.

He was born and grew up in Tarbert, Argyll. He graduated in 1900 with an M.A. from the University of Glasgow. He was initially a school teacher in Stornaway, but then became a Church of Scotland minister. He was the father of Sheena Campbell Hay (1911–1987) and George Campbell Hay, the Scottish Gaelic poet.^[1]

He is mainly known for his novel Gillespie (1914),^{[2] [3]} set in a fictionalised version of his home town of Tarbert. It received favourable reviews^[4] when it was published in 1914, but was largely forgotten until it was re-discovered in the late 20th century.^[5] He also wrote a second novel Barnacles (1916),^{[6] [7]} and a collection of poems Their Dead Sons (1918).^[8] In the year of his death, he was planning a third novel set in the Church of Scotland and to be entitled The Martyr.^[3]

In poor health for much of his adult life, he died of tuberculosis at the age of only 39.

References

1. Book: Fasti Ecclesiæ Scoticanæ: The Succession of Ministers in the Church of Scotland from the Reformation . 138 . 1920 . Oliver and Boyd .
2. Book: Hay, J. MacDougall. Gillespie. 1979 . Canongate . 9780903937795 .

   1979 reprint of 1914 original.

   . Book: 2001 pbk edition. 086241427X. MacDougall Hay . J. . 1993 . Canongate .
3. Web site: Murray, Isobel. Tait, Bob. Gillespie – J. McDougall Hay. canongate.co.uk. (brief biography)
4. Review of Gillespie by J. MacDougall Hay. 270 . 86 . The Academy: A Weekly Review of Literature, Science, and Art . 28 February 1914 .
5. Web site: Morton, Brian. 26 May 2014. Cannon Fodder (review of Gillespie). Scottish Review of Books.
6. Book: Hay, J. MacDougall. 1916. Barnacles.
7. Review of Barnacles by J. MacDougall Hay. The Review of Reviews . 53. 318. 593. June 1916 . Horace Marshall & Son .
8. Book: Royle, Trevor. John MacDougall Hay. https://books.google.com/books?id=HyDxLyb6yigC&pg=PT42. 9781780574325 . In Flanders Fields: Scottish Poetry and Prose of the First World War . 27 January 2012 . Random House .