[1] Hay was the son of Edmund Alfred Rollo George, Viscount Dupplin (12 November 1879 – 30 May 1903) and Gladys Luz Bacon, granddaughter of Major-General Anthony Bacon[2] and Lady Charlotte Harley.

Although he stated "I personally entirely disagree with the principle of hereditary legislators", and favoured abolition of the House of Lords "in its present form",[5] he rarely missed a debate.

In June 1933, it was stated that Lord Hay had not missed a session for the preceding 12 months, and overall had an overall attendance rate of 97%.

[6][7] He was married twice; the first, in 1923, to Enid Margaret Hamlyn Hamilton-Fellowes, a granddaughter of Sir Frederick Wills, 1st Baronet.

[9] He later married Mary Ethel Isobel, daughter of Dr. Ferdinand R. Meyrick and famed nightclub owner Kate Meyrick, and had four children:[4] He died at a London nursing home, of an unspecified lengthy illness (later reported as pancreatic cancer), at age 35.