Hay, Ian (1876-1952), was the pen name of the English novelist, playwright, and soldier Major General John Hay Beith. He wrote light-hearted novels of charm and humor that became highly popular. Many were about life in English boarding schools for boys, including Pip (1907), A Man’s Made (1909), A Safety Match (1911), The Middle Watch (1930), and The Housemaster (1936). Hay served throughout World War I (1914-1918). He wrote The First Hundred Thousand (1915), a best-selling account of enlisted men during the early months of the war. It was followed by two more successful war books, Carrying On (1917) and The Last Million (1918). Hay also wrote several plays, including comic adaptations of his novels and stories by the English author P. G. Wodehouse.
Hay was born on April 17, 1876, in Manchester and educated in Edinburgh and at Cambridge University. He died on Sept. 22, 1952.
